By SCOTT M. BURNSTEIN
ROCHESTER HILLS
With a chance to break a two game-losing streak hanging in the balance, Southfield's boys basketball team, used a balance attack to gain a thoroughly efficient road win on Monday night. The Bluejays went into the quite unfriendly confines of the Rochester Hills Adams gymnasium and came out with a 67-58 defeat of the host-Highlanders in OAA crossover action in a game that kicked off the week's prep hoops action.
Southfield's inside-outside combo of all-state guard Carlton Brundidge and fast-rising junior big man Patrick Owenu, combined to wreck havoc on the undersized Adams defense. Brundidge (verbally committed to Michigan as only a junior) scored 14 points, dished five assists, and corralled six rebounds and Owenu put in 14 points, hauled down 10 boards, and blocked three shots to lead the winning effort. Joshua Brown added eight points and Landon Atterberry recorded a solid game of a six points, five rebounds, and two blocks.
Needing a victory in the worst way after dropping back-to-back games to Clarkston and Oak Park last week, the Bluejays got it improve to 8-3 overall. The county's leading scorer last season as a sophomore with a 25 point per game average, Brundidge has sacrificed his prodigious point mongering for the better of the team this season. Although his scoring average is down, his team's record is up – last season the 'Jays hovered around the .500 mark all year long – as is his assist and rebounding totals. This development tells you all you need to know about what a warrior this 6-2 human sparkplug and future Maize and Blue'er truly is.
Adams, coming off a win over crosstown rival Rochester in a game played on the campus of Oakland University on Friday night, falls to 7-2 on the year. Senior guard Connor Boyle paced the Highlanders with 14 points and four assists.
Junior guard Jordan Littleson scored 13 points (3-of-5 from 3-point distance), eight of which came in the a frantic fourth quarter which saw Adams storm back from almost two dozen down to cut the Bluejays lead to just six points with less than three minutes remaining.
Keeping pace with the athletically-superior Bluejays in the first nine and a half minutes of the game, the Highlanders stumbled in the late second quarter and found themselves down 33-20 at halftime. A frenetic and energized Bluejays defense held Adams to a mere five points throughout the entire second quarter. The Highlanders outscored Southfield 23-17 in the game's final stanza of play.
The Southfield lead ballooned to as big as 23 at 48-25 midway through the third quarter. Down but not out, Adams started to shoot itself back into the game and used a spunky defensive spurt to significantly chop into the Bluejays advantage on the scoreboard heading down the stretch. Littleson's third triple of the game at the 2:46 mark of the fourth quarter made it a two possession game at 57-51. Led by the cold as ice, Brundidge, Southfield stayed strong and finished the Highlanders off at the free throw line. Brundidge, Owenu, Brown each hit multiple big time free throws in the closing two minutes to seal up the win for the Bluejays.
Southfield returns to the court on Thursday when the Bluejays are set to host North Farmington, a squad riding some serious momentum following its win over # 8 in the state-Clarkston on the road Friday night. Adams will travel to Lake Orion on Thursday night for its next game action.
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