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High School Teams
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RICHARD PEARL

Special to The Jewish News

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 3, 1992

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t's the winter break, and
area high school basket-
ball coaches are, in the
main, trying to be patient
while their teams do some
growing, skill-wise.
Not that the team records
aren't pretty satisfying thus
far. Most of the teams
surveyed by The Jewish News
have winning records and
Bloomfield Hills Andover is
even in wins and losses at 2-2.
Which is not bad for the
Barons who, by defeating
both Bloomfield Hills Lahser
and Hazel Park, have equall-
ed last year's victory mark.
Andover lost to Birmingham
Groves and to Southfield in
December, but are 1-1 in the
Southeastern Michigan
Association.
"Our players have shown
they're willing to work hard
on defense and on the runn-
ing game," says first-year
coach Ed Okuniewski, ad-
ding, "We see signs of our
fast-break jelling."
His concern, however, has
been co-captain Jeff
Rosenberg, who is struggling.
"He hasn't been up to poten-
tial lately. His game is out of
synch," says the coach. "And
we really need him."
Junior Matt Lowman, at 16
points per game, is Andover's
scoring leader while Mike
Laker is averaging 11.
Andover resumes play Jan.
3 against defending SMA
champion and perennial
powerhouse Troy. But Coach
Jim Clary's Colts are young,
with only three seniors retur-
ning from last year's title
team. To compensate, the
Colts are using a four-guard
offense.
At Berkley, another SMA
team, Coach Steve Rhoads,
now in his 21st year as the
Bears' boss, is "delighted to
be 4-0," especially with the
top six players from last
year's team having
graduated.
The only two returning let-
termen are point guard Tom
Machiniak and 6-6 guard Eric
Vandcereyk, who is averaging
17 points per game. Senior
center Tory Steward, 6-6, is
averaging 14 rebounds a
game, while guards Craig
Rhoads (the coach's son) and
6-5 James Shorters are
leading in steals.
It was Shorters' layup with
just seconds left that gave
Berkley a come-from-behind,
61-60 victory over Southfield
Dec. 21.

Hanley Marks:
16 points a game.

"We felt we have good
talent, but had to be extreme-
ly patient" with the inex-
perience of the team overall,
even to the point of holding
lunchtime meetings to ex-
plain the details of the up-
coming practices, says
Rhoads.
Guard Ryan Fried, one of
three sophomores on the
squad, is recuperating from
an arm injury suffered in foot-
ball. He played junior varsity
as a freshman last year and is
expected to help the Bears.
Meanwhile, Southfield,
which slipped to 2-1 with the
loss, is busy learning a new,
man-to-man defense while
developing a run-and-gun of-
fense, says Coach Harry
Vandenbrink.
"Our defense is what keeps
us in the game," he says, refer-
ring to the blistering steal-
and-score rally the Blue Jays
used to change an 11-point
deficit against Berkley into a
brief three-point lead.
The generally tough Jays,
expected to challenge for the
SMA title this season, got
steals and baskets from Vince
Ball, Charles Turner, Terry
Lowe and James Harris down
the stretch.
Southfield-Lathrup, coach-
ed by Bob Herm, was 3-1 at
the winter break.
"I wish we were 4-0 and we
probably should be," says
Herm, whose Chargers lost,
51-46, to Birmingham Sea-
holm Dec. 17 after victories
over Ferndale, Troy Athens
and Walled Lake Central. "If
we played Seaholm 10 times
a season, we'd beat them
eight. But we just didn't come
to play."
The team, which has
quickness, has seven seniors
from last year's mostly junior-
dominated team that went

Continued on Page 44

