UNDERMANNED SCS UNFAZED, RACKS UP ANOTHER VICTORY ON THE ROAD

Not having Chris Dewberry in the lineup on Friday night did nothing to slow Southfield Christian down on the boys basketball court.

Playing without Dewberry, their superstar transfer, who was out with the flu, the Eagles traveled to league foe Birmingham Roeper and had little trouble dispatching the host Roughriders 69-55 in a game they held a 20-point lead throughout much of the action.

Friday's win runs Southfield Christian's overall record to a flawless 6-0, 2-0 in the Michigan Independent Athletic Conference.

"It's a good victory," said Eagles first-year head coach Josh Baker of the triumph. "There are still improvements to make, but we're taking nice strides towards where we need to be."

Spending the past eight years as an assistant at Class A power Romulus, Baker was hired by Southfield Christian in the summer and has his Class D Eagles off to the best start in school history.

Baker's squad registered an evenly distributed stat sheet Friday to make up for the loss of Dewberry on offense. Senior Lindsey Hunter III scored a team-high 17 points, while his brother, sophomore Lindsey IV and freshman point guard Bakari Evelyn put up 16 points and five assists apiece. Captain Gavin Toma netted 13 points to go along with six assists for Southfield Christian, too.

"We pick each other up,"Toma said. "This team likes to spread the ball around. Nobody cares who scores what or how many shots they get. Everybody is invested in one common goal which is winning. The rest of the stuff doesn't really matter to us that much."  

Dewberry, a prolific offensive threat the last two years at Class A Waterford Mott, is averaging 16 points per game this season for the Eagles and is expected back in uniform when Southfield Christian faces high-scoring Rochester Hills Lutheran Northwest on Tuesday.

Roeper got big efforts from its frontcourt of senior center Jack Gorland and junior forward Garrett House. Both Gorland and House had double-doubles. Gorland scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and House scored a game-high 25 points and corralled 14 boards.

Despite being down by a large margin for most of the game, the feisty Roughriders kept attacking late in the game with aggressive play on both ends of the floor, outscoring the Eagles 14-7 in the fourth quarter.

Late last week, longtime Roeper head coach Ernie Righetti garnered his 700^th career win on the prep hardwood, a milestone that has only been reached three other times in state history.

Righetti and his Roughriders travel to Sterling Heights Parkway Christian on Tuesday for their next ball game.