Winning Big

CORSAIRS PULL UPSET, MOTT'S WINNING EFFORT CONTINUES VS KNIGHTS

The Waterford Mott boys basketball squad lost quite a bit from its arsenal heading into the 2012 campaign.

That's where most of the losing stopped for the gutty Corsair hoopsters.

Since the opening of the season, Mott has been surprising a lot of people by doing very little but winning.

On Tuesday, the upstart Corsairs took to the road and kept up their winning ways, handily defeating heavily favored Walled Lake Northern 65-54, to move their record to 5-2 and a perfect 2-0 in the KLAA North.

Coming off a league title in 2010, last year's Mott squad had a disappointing season, finishing below the .500 mark while losing both their leading scorer (Chris Dewberry) to transfer and their head coach (Derek Wiley) to an unexpected resignation.

This year's team has shaken off any residual hangover from the departures and is playing at a high-level, appearing ready to challenge to reclaim the league crown they relinquished 10 months ago.

Against Northern on Tuesday night, Mott roared back from a 38-30 halftime deficit. Exhibiting an aggressive and opportunistic defense, the Corsairs outscored the host Knights 17-3 in the third quarter to secure a lead on the scoreboard they wouldn't give up.

Junior point guard Khalil Malone led Mott's offensive charge, scoring a team-high 18 points and dishing seven assists. Hunter Reiche scored 14 and Drew Hovsepian tallied 11 for the Corairs as well. Mott senior forward and captain, Davonte Daniel posted a solid outing of eight points and nine rebounds. As sophomores, Hovsepian and Daniel were reserves on the Corsairs 2010 league championship ball club.

The Knights, who collected an emotionally-charged win versus crosstown rival Walled Lake Western back on Friday, falls to 6-1 after Tuesday's defeat. The Knights were paced by junior Gage Throgmorton's 21 points, all of which came in the first half of action.