By Chuck Klonke

It was more exciting than Lutheran North’s boys basketball team would have liked Friday, but the Mustangs’ 10th straight victory kept the folks who packed the North gym on the edge of their seats right to the end.

“I expected a letdown, but not that big of a letdown,” said coach Jeff DeMasse after North’s 45-42 victory against Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard in a Catholic League AA Division game. “We’ll take the win. They’re a well-coached athletic team. We’re not used to playing in this gym. We got the win, we’re happy with it and we’ll prepare better for the next one.”

North has played on the road since mid-December and the Mustangs were coming off a tough 65-63 win at Dearborn Divine Child earlier in the week.

North has a veteran team with seven seniors getting the majority of the minutes. That is a factor in the Mustangs’ success this season.

“It’s all about the chemistry growing up and playing against each other in middle school,” said Troy Tiseo, who led North with 17 points and played a strong all-around game. “We know each other really well. We hang out together all the time. We have a great foundation here and we hope to pass it on to the junior class as well.”

DeMasse said that the Mustangs are a special group.

“It’s just everyone having the same goal,” DeMasse said. “These seven seniors have been with me the last three years. The time is now for them. They all get along on and off the court. My team is very unselfish. The win is more important than any individual stats. My captains (David Mueller and Tiseo) preach that.”

Tiseo said the team is never satisfied, even after one of its victories.

“When we play together we’re at our best,” he said. “After every game we say we haven’t played our best but we still won. It’s all about how hard we work in practice the day before and our mindset when we come into the game.”

Both teams struggled offensively throughout the game and a lot of that was the result of solid defensive play.

“(Richard) is a lot more physical than I thought and we haven’t been able to hit our outside shots yet,” DeMasse said. “They defended that well. They were switching on everything. I knew what was coming but they executed better than we did.”

Irish coach Rex Stanczak said that his team has had offensive woes all season.

“Our problem is we’re just not hitting our shots, so what we had to do is what we’ve done all season — just defend,” he said. “Our defensive field-goal percentage coming into the game was 37 percent and we’re holding teams to 48 a game. We’re still 3-9, so that tells you something.

“I thought we did a good job of taking them out of their primary stuff, but Jeff did a great job of executing some plays we hadn’t seen on film. We didn’t quite hit enough shots and they defended well. They keep you off balance with their changing defenses. I thought they got just enough turnovers out of us to win the game.”

North had its biggest lead of the game, 17-10, after a layup by Tiseo with 3 1/2 minutes left in the first half, but the Irish finished the half on a 6-2 run and the game remained close the rest of the way.

Richard scored seven straight points early in the fourth quarter to take a 35-34 lead. Tiseo ended the run with a short jumper that put the Mustangs ahead to stay. Mueller scored on a layup and made three free throws down the stretch to secure the win for North.

Brendan Chanko led Richard with 11 points.

Gabriel Richard   7  9  12  14—42

Lutheran North    7 12  11  15—45

Gabriel Richard (0-2 Catholic League AA, 3-9): Mitch Foley 2, Greg Kendzicky 8, Anthony Redpath 2, Solomon Patray III 6, Grant Wing 2, Chris Chavey 2, Nate Turner 3, Brendan Chanko 11. Totals: 15 (4) 8-17–42.

Lutheran North (2-0 Catholic League AA, 10-0): David Mueller 9, Cole McClelland 5, Troy Tiseo 17, Colin Moldenhauer 6, Brendan Herbst 2, Gary Glaser III 6. Totals: 18 (0) 9-17—45.

Go MUSTANGS!!

Article originally posted by The Macomb Daily