SETTING THE TONE
Milford makes early statement in LVC race, knocking off defending champ Mott at home
MILFORD >> With the calendar barely turned over to December, and the first snow just starting to fall, it’s way too early to call Friday’s game a decisive one.
But that doesn’t mean it wasn’t huge. With a 65-47 home win, the Milford Mavericks laid a shot across the bows of the Waterford Mott Corsairs, giving the defending Lakes Valley Conference champions due notice of their intent to challenge for this year’s crown.
“It was a huge game. You know, it’s one we had circled on the calendar. Anyone who asked me I’d say they’re still the (league) favorite in my mind,” said Milford coach Dave Gilbert, whose Mavericks tied for third in the conference race a season ago, at 11-5, with the Corsairs handing them two of their five league losses.
“It was circled on our calendar because we do believe in our team and the team that we have. I said, ‘You guys are ready for this moment, you’re ready for this night.’ This is one that we circled, because it was gonna be a test whether you win or lose. It was just like, ‘Hey, you’re playing the top dogs.’ We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves in this game. And had I learned a sure heck of a lot.”
Gilbert learned that his Mavericks (2-0, 1-0 LVC) are resilient, after they fell behind early in that red-letter game, trailing 11-2 partway through the first quarter. And he learned that they won’t panic, as they kept it together when Mott opened the fourth quarter on a 14-3 run to cut a 13-point thirdquarter deficit down to just one point with 2:30 to play.
“We’ve built a lot of trust over the summer and in practice, and that was it right there. That was all trust all confidence in each other. In my teammates, coaches, the fans, it was it was crazy,” said senior forward Sam Lewis. “The biggest thing today was trust and we put a lot of trust in each other. … We had built that up over time and it was it was a great way to weather the storm.”
Lewis’ assist on a bucket by Anthony Hutter made it 48-45, after the Corsairs (02, 0-1) had cut it to 46-45 with 3:30 to go on a hoop by D’eanveon Whaley. The backbreaker for Mott came with 1:44 left, when Milford’s Owen Stark was fouled and scored underneath to make it 52-45.
“You need that one bucket, you know, and Owen Stark’s and-one down here was the big bucket, just to give our guys a sense of like ‘Oh yeah, let’s remember how we got here,” said Gilbert, whose team pumped it right back up to five points within a minute, and then closed the game out at the freethrow line. “Just tremendous. You know, like I said, I love these guys in this locker room and we’re really looking forward to this year. It was a great Mott team, wellcoached, so this is one that we can build off of.”
Gilbert learned a lot about his team in the second quarter, when his team outscored the Corsairs (0-2, 0-1) by a 22-6 margin to take a 30-21 halftime lead.
What he didn’t need to learn was that Lewis is perfectly able to take over a game, as he did in the second quarter, scoring 16 of his game-high 29 points in the frame.
“That’s who he is. I mean, we know and all the teams in league know. Right?” Gil
bert said. “Sam believes in his abilities we believe in them, too. We can play through him, and I really don’t care who’s on him — I believe in him.”
The Mavericks stretched their lead to 44-31 going into the fourth, before the Corsairs made their final run.
After Mott got it down to one at 46-45, the two teams combined for just two more buckets the rest of the way, with Milford extending its lead quickly with 15 points from the free-throw line. Carson Lutz had 11 of those points, going 11-for-12 from the line in the final 1:26 of the game, half
of those free-throw attempts on technical fouls assessed against Mott.
His 11 points went with the 29 from Lewis, and eight each from Lukas and Nathan Jaklic.
Kalieb Osborne had 13 points to lead the Corsairs, while Jacoby Menyweathers added 10.
“That’s a picture-perfect home opener,” Lewis said. “And that’s really going to get us started. We have a lot of confidence going forward.”
Milford plays three times next week, visiting Livonia Churchill on Monday and Walled Lake Western on Friday, with a Tuesday home game against Salem in between. Mott is off until Friday, when it hosts Walled Lake Central for another LVC contest.