Joomla Sport Template

When your best player has an off-shooting night and your can still end another team's eight-game winning streak, like Otsego did Friday to South Haven, 74-64, you're a pretty good team. Otsego is that, now 12-1. Of course it helps when that best player is a point guard, and 6-foot-1 sophomore Jared Klein is just that, one of the elite in Michigan's 2012 class. Jared Klein scored 12, but 6-1 junior Carl Nord had 23 points and 6-5 senior Derek Klein scored 21 for the Bulldogs. 

Everything started to move faster. The stands seemed to unfold and more inhabitants emerge, louder and closer as that court wilted from under the Academy of Oak Park players' feet. Any sliver of light through the defense held nothing but false promises, soon eaten away by the wingspans and quick hands of Muskegon Heights defense, full-court press to half-court traps. The already flimsy handles of AOP's guards lost all bearings in the Tigers' fourth quarter comeback, and Oak Park's upset bid was destined to fail. Hope was blown away with the help of all those Tigers banners. There may come a time when some upstarts from Detroit, a charter school no less, come in and win with a whole town rooting against them, and history certainly not on their side. May do what even the defending Illinois state champion couldn't. Possibly end an undefeated season at its half-life.

But not this day.