Northville Boys Basketball Wins Overtime Thriller Against Plymouth Wildcats

- Submitted by S. Patrone

Northville's boys varsity basketball team squeaked out a 49-42 overtime win Tuesday against the Plymouth Wildcats of the Kennsington South division to move their overall record to 10-6 for the season.

It was a see-saw battle between both teams as the largest point differential between any quarter was three points. Northville, second place in KLAA Central Division, got off to a slow start as the outside shots were not falling. Brett MacDonald broke the drought with an And1 drive to the basket. Plymouth’s offensive rebounds were falling their way as their second chances gave the
Wildcats the first quarter lead 8-11.

The Mustangs were shutout from the 3-point arc on five attempts which forced the Mustangs to pound the ball inside. Six foot six sophomore Andrew Meacham took control of the paint with his size and Plymouth started racking up team fouls. Northville converted their free throws into points as Meacham went 4-6, and senior Jeff Hewlett was perfect at 4-4. Halftime found the Mustangs still trailing by three points at 20-23.

Meacham continued his inside post presence as he poured in eight points. MacDonald also converted on a strong post move with another And1 opportunity. The Mustangs worked their offense around the perimeter to create scoring assists led by MacDonald and Stewart Henzi. Northville outscored Plymouth, 13-11, and cut the Wildcats lead to only one point, 33-34.

Both teams couldn’t find the net in the fourth quarter but MacDonald took a lob pass from Henzi with a minute left to tie the game at thirty eight all. MacDonald stole a pass from Plymouth with forty seconds left in the game. Northville kept possession and Jeff Gertley tried to win the game on a last second shot but the ball rimmed out.

The clock was set to four minutes for overtime play. The Mustangs finally drained in their first points beyond the arc when MacDonald converted from top of the key. The Mustangs took the lead 41-40 and would not look back. Junior Jake Hansen forced a Plymouth turnover at the two minute mark whereby MacDonald capitalized on his third offensive And1 scoring play to keep the lead at 44-42. Andrew Poterala secured an important defensive rebound. With
fifty seconds left on the clock, Andrew Meacham sunk both his bonus free throws for a 46-42 Mustang lead. Gertley intercepted a Plymouth pass and converted on a full court layup with Hansen nailing down one-for-two from the charity stripe to secure the win 49-42.

Meacham led all scorers with 16 points and 5 rebounds, followed by MacDonald with 13 points, 2 assists and 1 block shot. Hewlett had 6 points and 4 rebounds, followed by Henzi with 5 points and 1 block shot. Gertley had 4 points and 2 steals, Hansen had 3 points and Poterala had 2 points to round out the Mustang scores.

The Mustangs will host the first round of the KLAA tournament against the  Plymouth Wildcats on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. The second season begins!