STANDING TALL
Marian uses twin towers Swanson and Sylvester to get past Clarkston
CLARKSTON » With their one 6-footer on the bench with crutches, it was no surprise to Clarkston Wolves that Monday’s season opener was going to be an uphill battle against a much taller Birmingham Marian squad.
After all, it’s not like Marian got bigger overnight or grew in the last two weeks.
Well, technically, the Mustangs did grow by about 12 feet, five inches once the volleyball season ended nine days earlier with a repeat state championship for the Mustangs, allowing them to release two of their middle blockers — 6-foot-2 sophomore Mckenzie Swanson and 6-3 senior Sarah Sylvester — back to hoops.
That twosome scored 16 points each — with Swanson dominating the first-half scoring, and Sylvester coming alive after the half — to offset 27 points from Clarkston’s Madison Skorupski, using their height advantage to grind out a 54-48 win over the Wolves.
“No, it isn’t (ever easy). It’s just kind of frustrating sometimes, when you look at our personnel and say ‘We should do better.’ But we got our act together and we didn’t fold. They played hard and they got it done,” said Marian coach Mary Cicerone, starting her 39th season on the Mustangs bench. “We struggled to get her (Sylvester) the ball. Oh, my Lord. … I felt that there was a lot of physical pushing and shoving in there and undercutting and stuff, but, you know, we’ve got to prove we can play against that. So, you know, they were out-manned. And so they had to do what they had to do — we figured it out second half, but got a little better.”
With 6-footer Mia Zorski on the bench in street clothes and crutches, the Wolves don’t have a player listed over 5-foot-9, leaving a lot of the defensive duties to come by committee and from Skorupski and junior post Anna Thomas.
“Yeah, we’re a feisty bunch for being a little height challenged, for sure. But that’s all right, we knew that. … I told them in the locker room that we’re not going to face two other teams that have that kind of (post) combo the rest of the year, right?” said first-year Clarkston coach Aaron Goodnough, who spent the last three seasons as the junior varsity coach under departed coach John Weyer. “And a bounce here or there and we kind of slow or slow ourselves down a little bit — we’re fine. So we’ll get there. We’ll get there. You know, I’m
very much encouraged. As I was coming into it, I’m still very encouraged by it.”
Clarkston led 14-13 after one quarter, but Marian scored the first seven points of the second quarter to go up 20-14. The Wolves came back to score 16 of the final 20 points in the first half — including 10 straight to close out the second quarter — to lead 30-24 at the break. Sylvester scored 11 points in the third quarter as Marian jumped out to a 40-34 lead in the third, and outscored Clarkston by 12 points (2210) in the frame, taking a 46-40 lead into the fourth. Clarkston’s saving grace was two 3-pointers by Ava Hernandez to keep them within hailing distance.
Fighting foul trouble all game long, Grace Rotter had seven points in the third for Marian, while Anna Herberholtz spread her nine points out equally. But the bulk of the heavy lifting offensively came from the big two of Sylvester and Swanson.
“I have shooters. It’s just … I just don’t think we executed very well. You know, teams want to say (that) again, (and) we’ve got to be able to. But Mack and Sarah didn’t do a very good job of, I think, working together or kicking the ball back out. They were forcing things up in there, you know. There was three kids around them and they were trying to force it up. We recognized that a little better second half, and they were much better together the second half,” Cicerone said. “But you know, I I’m a little disappointed. I thought we were going to be much more prepared than we were I’m not happy with the defensive effort. And … you know, first game, we get a lot of things we can work on.”
After just a two-point third quarter for Skorupski, she ripped off eight points in the fourth, cutting the deficit to just two points, 50-48, with a little over two minutes left. The Mustangs added four points, the last two on a bucket by Swanson alone underneath with 1:10 left, but kept the door cracked with a pair of turnovers in the final minute — one on an offensive foul and another trying to corral a rebound — but closed it when Sylvester partially blocked one of Skorupski’s last-second shots.
“She’s a very smart basketball player — very shifty. She’s just she’s good both ways. She does a nice job,” Cicerone said of the Clarkston guard.
Now a senior, Skorupski has taken over the leadership role as well as the bulk of the scoring duties for the Wolves.
“For sure. To the point that, as we were going through open gyms — and they’re running open gyms on their own — the girls are coming up to me and going, ‘She’s barking at me. She’s yelling at me.’ I’m going, ‘I hate to tell you — I’m with her.’ She really has. She’s become that leader over the years. And I think there’s a comfort level too. There’s a comfort level. She knew what what was coming in. And yeah, we asked a lot of her. You know, I think a lot of it is just because she’s been so talented, she’s wanted to defer to everybody and a lot was not asked of her. We ask a ton of her on and off the court. We ask a ton of her, and she’s just stepped up and she loves it,” Goodnough said. “She’s incredibly talented. She’s so smooth. But she’s a coach on the court too. I mean, she’s in here barking out exactly what she’s seeing and what’s gonna run for us. And, you know, typically it’s Izzy (Hadley) and Maddy together. Izzy struggled a little bit tonight to start the season. Probably some nerves probably forcing it a little bit, but she’ll be fine too.”
The Wolves were able to get some use out of fullcourt pressure to generate turnovers and scoring opportunities, but the biggest change from Weyer to Goodnough may be the half-court defensive scheme.
“That’s really the biggest switch for us this year, is we’re just trying to get to a completely different type of defense than we’ve ever played. … And we saw some, some bits of it tonight and give us three, four or five games and I think we can get some teams some fits. So we’ll get there,” Goodnough said. “For us, it’s more than half court defense. We’re doing some things in the half court that they’ve never done and we’re asking to do. And frankly, it’s going to involve them having to communicate. You know, basketball coaches always talk about ‘talk, talk talk.’ They’re gonna have to (talk) — if they’re not, they’re gonna see layups go in, and they’re gonna figure it out real quick. So, but we’ll get there.”
The Wolves don’t have as much time to work out the kinks before their next contest.
They host Walled Lake Central on Thursday, while the Mustangs host St. Clair Shores Lakeview on Dec. 7.