Novi triumphs on ‘Senior Night’ thanks to 2nd-half surge

Trailing Salem 28-23 following two quarters of Monday’s “Senior Night” showdown, Novi basketball coach Chris Housey didn’t use a whiteboard during his re-energizing halftime message.

“To be honest, there weren’t a lot of X and O adjustments,” Housey said, smiling in the wake of a 62-50 comeback victory for the Wildcats.

“We were getting out-rebounded, out-hustled and — to be honest — we were getting out-worked. We pride ourselves on being one of the hardest working teams, so my message was we had to turn that around.”

The Wildcats responded accordingly and honored the contingent of six seniors (Boden Fernsler, Sahil Devulapalli, Alex Smith, Thad Lawler, Zack Knoll and Nolan Thompson) in the fashion they deserved, Housey said.

‘They never take a play off’

“This group of seniors helped get the program to where we wanted to be,” Housey said. “They’re model citizens, great kids, they get straight A’s and they compete their butts off. They never take a play off.

“I’m so proud of them and so happy we were able to get a win for them on ‘Senior Night’.”

To check out a few video highlights from Monday’s game, click here.

For a while Monday night, it appeared as if it may be Salem senior Ryan Peters’ night.

The Rock star, who entered the game needing 33 points to hit 1,000 for his career, got off to a red-hot start, scoring seven early points.

However, thanks to a joint defensive effort led by junior Chase LeFevre and foul trouble that limited his second-half minutes, Peters was held to 13 points over the final three frames, but still finished with a team-high 20 points.

Pressuring Peters

“We did as good of a job as you can do against a player of his caliber,” Housey said. “I told him after the game that I enjoyed competing against him for the past four years and that he was a pain to game-plan against.

“He’s such an unselfish player; he always makes the right play. Like I told him, it was fun playing against him, but a pain at the same time.”

The Wildcats started five seniors — with the sixth being the first one off the bench — but were led by the high-octane offensive duo of LeFevre (22 points) and Aaron Lauer, who netted 18.

Knoll (eight points) and Fernsler (six points) also made solid contributions at both ends of the court for the winners.

“Chase and Aaron have been our offensive go-to guys most of the year,” Housey said. “They’ll have nights when the shots aren’t falling, but to their credit they continue to work hard and look for their shot.”

Stone huge for Rocks

In addition to Peters, Salem was powered by seniors Mitch Robillard (12 points) and Aydin Saiyed (eight points).

Freshman point guard Landen Stone scored nine for the Rocks, including a first-quarter up-and-under scoop shot that would have given most opponents an “H” in a game of H-O-R-S-E.

Novi, which improved to 12-9 overall and 7-7 in the KLAA West Division, erupted for 24 third-quarter points — half the result of four long-range threes — to seize a 47-42 advantage with eight minutes left.

Salem, which slipped to 6-14 and 5-9, respectively, never managed to mount a serious threat down the stretch.

Ed Wright can be reached at 734-664-4657 or edwright@socialhousenews.com.

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