Cranes end year as Tourney Champs, tops Clawson 50-38 in Holiday Tournament

It started out slowly and developed into a foul-filled slugfest, complete with two technical fouls, (one per team), fan ejections, players fouling out of the game and 40 fouls in total (Cranes with 16 and the Clawson Trojans with 24).

Overall the Cranes shot 19 of 32 from the foul line (just under 60%), added 3 three’s (Steven Morrow, Alex David and George Orley) and 11 two point buckets to deny the Trojans who attempted to rally back but could not contain the Cranes.

It was a scoreless game for the first minute when a bucket was finally scored by Cranbrook.  The Cranes never looked back, ending the first quarter 11-9 behind the shooting of Matt Vlasic with 6 points.  Only two other teammates scored in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Cranes erupted with 16 points to 6 for Clawson, resulting in a halftime lead of 27-15.  Vlasic added 6 more points ending with 12 for the night.  After a scoreless first quarter, Sterling Morrow began to add his point contribution through a combination of two pointers and free throws.  Ending the game with 15 points, Sterling was also blanked in the third quarter.  At the same time, the fouls started to grow with Cranbrook being whistled for 5 infractions and the Trojans accumulating 9 calls by halftime.

Steven Morrow also reached double digit scoring for the night with a ten point performance. 

The third quarter began with Cranbrook maintaining its 12 point lead for the first five minutes of the period, allowed Clawson to close the gap to five points and then regained  a ten point lead by the end of stanza complete with a ‘highlight reel ‘ shot block by Vlasic to end the quarter 33-23.  Vlasic ended up with 4 blocked shots for the game, and much intimidation for the Trojans.

The rough and tumble fourth quarter was complete with foul after foul as Clawson struggled to catch the Cranes but they fell short 50-38 as the buzzer sounded.

After the end of the game, Steve Morrow was named to the all Tournament team and Sterling Morrow gained Tournament MVP honors.

After a short New Years break the Cranes kick off their league season on Friday January 7^th against perennial Catholic League powerhouse Divine Child with an away game in Dearborn.  Come on out and support our 5-0 Cranes, opening tip is at 7:30 pm.