Adrian High School boys basketball defeats Clinton

You don’t always have to be a starter to make the biggest impact on a game.

That couldn’t have been more true Saturday as the Adrian High School boys basketball team’s bench led the way to a 66-25 win against Clinton at the Merillat Sport and Fitness Center on the campus of Adrian College.

The Maples (3-2) have eight players listed on their roster and the three who didn’t start were the team’s three leading scorers. Junior Dominique Marr had 20 points, while senior Noah Solis had 18 and junior Tyler Shephard added nine.

“We have five starters, but the other guys are right there,” said Adrian head coach Phil Green. “These guys are ready to go when they get in the game. They do whatever we ask of them.”

The Maples went into the second quarter up 16-5 with Marr being the leading scorer with seven points in the first.

Solis caught up in the second quarter where Adrian really started to pull away from the Redskins (1-3) with a 21-6 advantage in the quarter and a 37-11 lead at halftime.

Marr went into the halftime with a game-high 13 points while Solis had 11.

“(Solis) is a stud,” Marr said. “Coach always looks for us to get a lot of turnovers off the bench and a lot of energy. We usually don’t come off this hot, but we played really well today and the bench contributed. It made our starters want to play better because they saw what we were doing.”

Clinton was also led by a bench player on offense.

Junior Danny Spence had a team-high nine points and three rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to keep his team in the game.

The Maples brought a lot of pressure, making the most routine things like inbounding and bringing the ball up the court a battle for the Redskins.

“The unpredictable traps that we prepared for yesterday and looked good against didn’t carry over,” said Clinton head coach Mike Ruhl. “When things started going south, instead of battling through it, we kind of let it continue. We’re going to look in the mirror a little bit.

There is a lot of potential and basketball is a tricky game. It becomes mental and you have to be able to survive as a team and get through it.”

As a team, Clinton didn’t have a lot of time between the fall and winter seasons.

The Redskins made a trip to Ford Field for the Division 6 football state title game and a majority of the basketball team is made of football players.

But coach Ruhl won’t let that be an excuse for his team’s effort on Saturday. He knows he has a lot of players who know what it’s like to win and he hopes they’ll take a turn soon.

“There are a lot of winners in (the lockerroom),” Ruhl said. “It just isn’t showing yet and without a change in effort levels and attitude...some tough decisions need to be made.”

The good news for Ruhl and Clinton, is that it has been done before.

When the Redskins went to Ford Field in 2013, the basketball team followed them with a 1-10 start to the season.

That team ended up with a district championship.

“We had enough, caught fire, won a district and rectified things,” Ruhl said. “That is a credit to that group of players. We need to do the same thing and that’s not going to be easy and it’s do-able.”

Clinton will look to start its turn at 7 p.m.Thursday when it hosts Whitmore Lake.

Adrian will look to win back-to-back games for the second time this year at 7 p.m. Friday when it hosts Chelsea.