Surging Chiefs bounce ‘Cats, extend commanding lead in West
Devon Pettus lays in two of his 15 points over Plymouth’s Kymani Smith.
With its resounding Groundhog’s Day victory over host Plymouth, Canton’s boys basketball team lengthened its shadow over the rest of the KLAA West Division.
Led by four double digit-scoring players, the Chiefs won a 62-38 no-doubter over the Wildcats in a revved-up rivalry atmosphere at Plymouth.
With both schools’ student cheering sections out in full force, Canton improved to 9-0 in the division (13-3 overall), giving it a four-game lead with just five regular-season division games remaining.
To view a few video highlights of Friday’s game, click here.
The victory was a rare runaway for the Chiefs, who have won six games by four points or fewer this season.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games this season, so it was nice to finally be able to pull away tonight,” said junior guard Teddy Winstel, who scored 15 points. “The focus of our team is to put teams away early, so it feels good to finally do that.”
Ramped-up crowd
Winstel said the triumph was extra-special considering the vibe in the gym.
“Games like this are always my favorite games because we get to play in front of all of our friends,” Winstel said.
“It doesn’t get any better than this. It gets your adrenaline going. There’s always a lot of talk at school during the day, a lot of hype, which I love.”
Senior forward Bradley Eziuka led the winners’ balanced attack with 16 points — 11 of which came in the second half when Canton turned a six-point halftime lead into an insurmountable gap with an early-fourth quarter explosion.
Devon Pettus scored 15 and sixth-man Alex Persinger added 11, nine coming on a trio of threes.
Plymouth was led by sophomore sixth man Mack Swafford’s 10. Cam Short and Zack Jones both scored nine for the Wildcats.
The Chiefs did a stellar job of containing Plymouth’s 6-foot-5 post player Idrys Cotton, who was held to four points.
The Chiefs welcomed the return of senior point guard Caleb Williams, who missed most of the second half of their Jan. 23 win at Hartland and all of Tuesday’s victory over Northville with an ankle injury.
“It’s always nice to get a player like Caleb back because he does so much for us,” Canton Head Coach Jimmy Reddy said. “When Caleb was out, guys like AP (Alex Persinger) and Nick Hurley really stepped up. Especially with Nick getting more opportunity, it will help our depth down the stretch.”
Reddy said he never relaxed until the game’s waning minutes, even when his team built a 20-point advantage early in the fourth.
“We got up 20 then gave up a couple easy ones,” he said. “Plymouth battled hard to the end; you know they’re not going to go away. Credit to my guys, too. I thought they played hard on both ends of the court tonight.”
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
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