Eagles Breeze Past Lake Orion 82-62

FERNDALE - Joe Baker looked like a player who hadn’t played a basketball game in 12 months... for one half.

The transfer student from Clawson made his debut for the Ferndale boys varsity basketball team on Tuesday night. His impressive second half helped the Eagles to an 82-62 win over Lake Orion.  

Baker missed all six of his field goal attempts in the first half and only had two points (from free throws), but it didn’t take him long to settle down after halftime.

“It’s actually been a whole year since I played,” Baker said. “I’ve been out of rhythm for a little while and I’m just getting back in rhythm now.”

He ran the point for the Eagles (5-3; 3-2 Oakland Activities Association White) for much of the third and aggressively attacked the basket. The Dragons defense struggled to stop Baker without fouling and he benefited with six trips to the line in the quarter. He made all six attempts and had 11 points in the third.

“You could tell he hadn’t played in a year (in the first half), but we’re so happy to have him,” coach Tom Staton said. “You could tell his IQ on the court. When his shot wasn’t following all of a sudden he was going to the hole for and ones, getting to the line. That’s really what he does best.”

The rest of the offense found its rhythm in the third as well. The Eagles finished the quarter up 59-50 by scoring 27 points and making all 11 of their free throw attempts. The lead changed six times in the third, but a late scoring surge put Ferndale in charge. Back-to-back old-fashioned three-point plays on layups by Anthony Rice and Jordan Guinn highlighted the 11-0 run.

 “We really just started gelling two weeks ago (in practice), now we get to show that on the court,” Baker said.

No one was looking forward to Baker’s debut more than Guinn. Defenses have focused on the Eagles leading scorer in recent games and Baker’s presence on the court opened up the floor for Guinn to get more open looks. Guinn led all scorers with 25 points and had three open layups in the fourth quarter before sitting down with 2:16 left in the game.

“When I took him out, I said I had to take you out man, too many open layups,” Staton said, laughing. “It truly is going to not just take the pressure off him as far as scoring is concerned, but also as far as having someone else on the court with that IQ, like (Anthony) Rice.”

In the first half the big story for Ferndale was the play of its bench. Staton kept four of his five starters on the bench for three minutes in the second quarter and the reserves looked sharp. The bench reduced a seven point first quarter deficit to one point. Elliott Oldham, Jordan Ellis and Nathan Stepney all contributed baskets in an Eagles 8-2 run.

Staton called it an “awesome” performance from the group.

“I told them, now with Joe I can go to a more platoon system,” Staton said. 

That group will get even bigger on Friday when Staton adds Willie Harvey to his rotation. Ferndale thought they were getting Harvey on Tuesday, but his debut was pushed back to later in the week. The 6-foot-5 forward will join the Eagles for its game against Avondale at home. Staton says Harvey will give the Eagles a huge boost inside and will be another difference-maker.

Correction: The transfer student is Willie Harvey.