Northville Varsity Boys Basketball Team Struggles In Season Opener

- Submitted by Steve Patrone

The Northville Mustang boys basketball team’s season kicked off Tuesday night against the Walled Lake Northern Knights.

The Northville stands were packed with fans in anticipation of the season opener. The first quarter started out with both team’s creating multiple turnovers with their fast paced offenses.

The Knights took the early lead 16-10 at the end of the first quarter. The Mustangs struggled with shooting from the floor even with great ball movement to find open shots. The Knight’s half court press created problems for the Mustangs in the first half of play, resulting in numerous And1 points off of Mustang turnovers. Halftime saw the Mustangs down by only 11 points, despite the slow start, at 26-15.

The Mustangs came out of halftime energized forcing five consecutive Knight’s
turnovers starting the third quarter. Mustang team steals were led by Andrew Poterala (3), Mitch Alameddine (2) and Stewart Henzi (2). Despite the improved energy, the Mustangs still struggled to find the bottom of the net at the end of the third quarter with the Knights increasing their lead to 39-22. Mustang offensive scoring standouts were Brett MacDonald (13 pts) and Stewart Henzi (7pts) while Henzi and Brandon Patrone pulled down two offensive boards each.

Defensively, Henzi was a force on the boards grabbing (6) rebounds followed by
MacDonald (4) and point guard Jeff Hewlett (3). Despite the Walled Lake Northern student body being extremely vocal, the Mustangs never lost their composure.

Unfortunately, the Knight’s high field goal shooting percentage proved to be too much for our Mustangs to overcome with the final score being 53-31.

Be sure to support our Northville varsity boys basketball team at their home opener on Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. against the Walled Lake Central Vikings. There will be exciting new surprises for our fans this year so we hope to see you next Tuesday.