Fresh off a big victory over Detroit Catholic Central in a MLK Day showcase game earlier in the week, the Romulus Summit Academy North boys basketball team was back in action Thursday evening.
Jumping back into Charter School Conference play, Summit returned to its friendly confines at ‘The Peak’ and welcomed in traditional Division 1 power and conference newcomer Hamtramck. Already a battle-tested group, Hamtramck came in sporting a 9-4 mark on the season with an opponents’ collective win percentage approaching the .600 mark.Fittingly, it was a fast and physical game from start to finish between the two conference title hopefuls. But a late second half push was the difference for the D2 top-ranked Dragons from Summit, who held off the visiting Cosmos for a 47-35 win.
It’s now four consecutive wins for Summit, who came into the week ranked No. 1 in D2 by the Michigan Sports Writers for a second straight week.
The style of play on display on Thursday led to one of the more lower-scoring outputs for both teams.
The 47 points was the second-lowest total in any game this season for Summit, and only the third time they’ve been held under 50. The Dragons, however, did hold Hamtramck to a new season-low in points.
It was an appropriate trading of buckets and leads in the opening minutes of Thursday’s battle, that was until Summit closed out the first quarter with 11 unanswered points to take a 16-6 lead into the second. That run grew to as much as 16 for the Dragons before Hamtramck began to climb back into it and get the difference down to single digits just before halftime.
A lid was on the rim for both teams throughout much of the third, particularly on the side of Summit. After an early bucket in the first minute of the period, the Dragons saw Hamtramck go on a more methodical drawn-out run of their own and get within a single bucket at 28-26.
That is when Jordan Fuller started to take matters into his own hands for the locals.
A second-team all-News-Herald honoree a season ago, Fuller knocked down a three-pointer in transition in the final minute of the third to end the drought for Summit. That triple from the senior kick-started a 10-0 run for the Dragons, allowing them to regain control of things going into the fourth.
While he did a lot of his scoring damage early on Thursday — 14 of his game-high 20 points in the first half — Fuller was able to get more teammates involved in the fourth, namely backcourt mates Codey Bush and Marquan White.
In addition to it being a season-low in points, Hamtramck simply could not counter with any of the extended runs that Summit put together. In fact, the longest stretch of unanswered points the Cosmos garnered on Thursday was six in the third quarter.
Fuller aside, Summit got a combined 17 points from the senior White and the freshman Bush. The former scored seven of his nine in the fourth quarter. The Dragons also got a nice spark from Demetri Campbell, who chipped in with seven points and a half-dozen rebounds.
Hamtramck in the loss was led by a team-best 12 points from Curtis Flagg.
UP NEXT
It’s a pretty quick turnaround for Summit (14-1), who will play its penultimate regular season conference game on Friday, Jan 23 at home vs Redford Westfield Prep. The Dragons will then conclude its CSC slate a week later on Jan 30 when they visit D2 No. 13-ranked Harper Woods Chandler Park.
