Flint Northwestern at Carman-Ainsworth

Flint- The table has been set, now Carman-Ainsworth just needs to win the rubber match Friday night over conference rival Flint Powers, to have complete bragging rights over the city of Flint. 

The Cavs have already beaten Powers once, along with Flint city schools Southwestern, Northern, and last night they took care of business against Northwestern 79-67. 

Carman’s strong core of starters, which include seniors Glen Cosey, 6-7 Jaylen Larry, 6-6 Dee Chapman, sophomore Anton Wilson, and freshman PG Denzel Watts, went right at Northwestern. 

By time the visiting Wildcats got on the score board they already found theirselves down double digits.  Carman focused on their defense early and held Northwestern scoreless for the game’s first six minutes, but found easy lanes to the basket on their end to hold a 21-8 lead after one quarter of play.

Midway through the second quarter the Wildcats got hot and Jaylen Magee’s three point play cut the lead to 29-19 with 4:02 showing. Seniors Cosey and Chapman stepped up and consecutive baskets put an end to Wildcat run to help the Cavs take a 41-30 lead into the half.

Northwestern used the majority of the second to slowly close the deficit.  Midway through the fourth Travon Mitchell stepped it up, first a 3-pointer with a hand in his face, and then a steal that led to a Merquan Chapman basket and the score was 62-59 with 4:44 left to play. 

But Carman once again answered back with their defense.  A Larry block, followed by a Watts steal and Carman was once again up seven points.  Chapman shut the door on Northwestern with his one hand slam in the closing seconds. 

Carman now improves to 11-2 with the win to set up Friday’s showdown with Powers for the BIG 9 crown.  Cosey led the way with 25 points and showed his touch by killing Northwestern with his midrange pull up shot.  He moves very well without the ball and knows how to find the open spacing. 

Chapman and Larry were tough in the paint and put in a long days work.  They both registered double doubles with Chapman going for 17 and 12 to go with Larry’s 18 and 10. 

Watts once again looked quite impressive.  His ability to get to the basket and out muscle his opponent to get off a good shot is far from a normal freshman.  It was surprising to see Carman spread the floor and let the freshman do his thing.  He finished with 14 points, 5 assist, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.      

After rolling off 11 straight wins Northwestern now has consecutive losses to Buena Vista and Carman.  The good news is they were in both games late.  The Wildcats have some soul searching to do to get back on the right track.  When they play as a team and share the ball they get high percentage shots.  But too many times they preferred to go 1-on-1 and force shots.  Northwestern was led by Mitchell’s 16 points and MaGee’s 15.