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	The Ypsilanti Courier A Heritage Newspaper Weekly Publication

Varsity Phoenix winners of last four

Terry Lopez comes up big in win over Detroit Community

By Dave Merchant, Staff Writer

PUBLISHED: January 24, 2008

There is hot and then there is red hot and the Ypsilanti Phoenix basketball team has been red hot for the last two weeks.

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The locals have won their last four games including a very nice 65-60 win on Friday night at Detroit Community.

After coming out slow, the Phoenix trailed the Hurricanes 24-12 after the first quarter.

Ypsilanti Coach Steve Brooks said he wasn't worried at that point.

"We had a couple of defensive breakdowns and they had a big 6-9 kid," Brooks said. "We put it on the floor and made a couple of adjustments."

By the half, the Phoenix were up slightly 36-35. After 24 minutes of play the locals were tied with Community 50-50.

Brooks said that his senior guards really made the difference late in the game. At one point his guards (Torren Burns and Marvon Sanders) burned up about two minutes and forty seconds of the clock in the fourth quarter.

Down the stretch Terry Lopez hit three-of-four from the free throw line and Donald Spencer was 1-of-2.

"It was a big win on back-to-back nights for us," he said. "I thought we could have played a little better but we will take the win."

Brooks said in a lot of ways it was like the Belleville game.

"We were able to control the tempo," he said. "I think we only shot like 12-of-21 from the floor. It was a lot like the Belleville game."

Burns had a nice night scoring with 23 points. Greg Gibson was next for the locals with 13 points.

On Thursday night in a cross-town rival game the Phoenix took out Willow Run 59-31.

Both teams played even in the first quarter but Ypsilanti held the lead 13-10. By the half the Phoenix went up 30-14.

"Burns and Lopez pretty much made the difference in the game," he said. "Burns had 18 points and Lopez had 12 points and 12 boards."

Brooks said that his team played very good defense against the Flyers and didn't allow them a lot of second chances.

"(Mark) Cook got up eight to nine shots for them," he said. It was a typical rivalry game."

In the second half, Ypsilanti scored 29 points and the Flyers managed just 17 points.

The Phoenix improve to 5-6 overall and our tied for second in the Mega Red with a 4-1 record.

This past Tuesday they hosted Romulus (5-0) in the Mega Red) for a share of the lead in the league title.

"They are a good team with some explosive talent," he said. "I expect it will be a team with less than three losses in the league that will win the league this year."

Contact Staff Writer Dave Merchant at 697-8255 or dmerchant@heritage.com