Northville’s tenacious defense pivotal in comfortable win over Canton
Northville’s Ally Pace and Sophia Knapp double team Canton’s Devyn Plozai.
Guarding their Canton counterparts like tight-fitting gloves, members of Northville girls basketball team turned to the defensive end of the court Friday night to snap a rare four-game winning streak.
Holding the Cobras without a field goal for the game’s first 6 minutes and change, the Mustangs cruised to a 40-23 victory by crashing the boards and crushing their opponents’ spirits on defense.
“Coach has been talking to us about our next-play mentality,” shared Northville senior guard Carly Pelon, who complemented her 10 points with sticky defense. “We know coach won’t get mad at us if we turn the ball over or miss a shot, as long as we try our best to get a steal at the other end.”
Next-play mentality
A perfect example of Reddy’s message unfolded in the second quarter when Pelon misfired on a contested layup. Instead of hanging her head, she hustled to catch up to the Canton ball-handler near mid-court and forced a turnover — one of at least 10 the hosts created in the first half alone.
It’s probably no coincidence that the back half of Northville’s victory slump prior to Friday’s win has come since the team lost arguably its best defender and rebounder — junior Peyton Sivier — to an injury in the first half of its 41-38 loss to Brighton on Jan. 30.
“We’re still figuring out how to play without Peyton,” Reddy said. “Defensively, she led us in blocks, deflections and defensive rebounds. Getting used to playing without her has been a work in progress, so we’ve tweaked a few things. We played better tonight.”
Pelon, Fraas earn praise
Reddy praised the two-way impact of Pelon and the scoring boost junior Sophia Fraas has contributed recently. Fraas led the Mustangs in scoring against Canton with 12 points — nine coming in the first quarter when Northville raced to a 12-3 lead.
“Carly creates havoc on defense for us,” Reddy said. “She’s a great example of the next-play mentality — making a play on defense quickly after we don’t score on a possession.
“Sophia has been really good for us the past month. She can score at all three levels now, which helps. She’s always been able to knock down threes, score at the rim and score with contact at the rim, but lately we’ve been working more on her mid-range pull-up jumper and she’s been shooting a high percentage the past month. We need her to continue to shoot like she has been.”
Freshman energizer
Northville was energized Friday night by the play of freshman guard Taylor Chrzanowski, who contributed five points and a couple of Chris Paul-esque assists.
Senior Harper Lee also played well for the winners, netting eight points while pulling down several rebounds.
Canton’s leading scorer was senior Ashley Garcia, who netted nine points — six the results of two nothing-but-net threes. No other Cobra managed to score more than four points.
The Mustangs host Plymouth Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a game that should decide which team finishes in second place in the Howell-dominated KLAA West. Both teams enter the night with identical 7-4 records in the division.
Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.
