Berezowitz goes off for 20 points
By Mike Ramczyk
The Waterford boys basketball team hasn’t won a game in a month and had two wins all season.
But Feb. 1 proved that rivals meet up on the court, you can pretty much throw the records out the window.
The visiting Wolverines surged ahead of the sluggish Burlington Demons and seemed poised for an upset, up 32-31 with seven minutes remaining.
With all the momentum, Waterford missed four straight outside shots before the Demons finally got hot.
An unlikely scoring source, junior Jake Klug, knocked down an elbow 3-pointer to ignite the Demons, who reeled off an 8-0 run and held on for the 47-41 victory.
Klug’s three was followed by another triple from Joey Berezowitz, who led all scorers with 20 points, and Burlington improved to 9-6 overall and 5-2 in the Southern Lakes Conference.
“I saw Tucker Strommen driving in, and I noticed my guy went to help on Joey, who was right next to me and Tucker noticed that and in my head I knew I was hitting that shot,” Klug said. “To hit that shot was huge. It put my team in a good position to win the game versus a rival in a big game.”
“Waterford played a good game and we didn’t really turn it on until the end of the half. I just felt we didn’t match their energy at the end, but we just had a little more which helped us out.”
Klug finished with six points on two triples.
Berezowitz, who now leads the team with 11.6 points per game, had perhaps his best offensive performance.
He was driving to the paint and hit a left-handed bank shot with nice touch, added two triples and
knocked down a perfect eight of eight free throws.
The sophomore has become one of the Demons’ most dangerous weapons.
“It feels great,” Berezowitz said Friday night. “They played great. We had a lot of energy in the last five minutes, and it helped us pull out the victory.”
“We just really wanted to win that game. It was tough coming off a week with no school, there wasn’t much prep.”
“This team can go as far as possible. I love our team, we have a great group of guys. We have a good future ahead of us.”
Junior Dylan Runkel, who added eight points for the Demons, had a key three-point play with two minutes left to help seal the victory.
Klug finished with six points, and Trey Krause had five.
Willie Ketterhagen led the Wolverines with 17 points, including three 3-pointers.
Waterford coach Paul Charapata credited the defensive play of his team, which trailed, 19-16, at halftime.
Ultimately, the guys hit a cold stretch late and couldn’t counter the Demons’ rally.
Waterford got to as close at 39-34, but wouldn’t cut the margin any more the rest of the game.
“We had an extended scoring drought, which we’ve experienced in every game this season, which eventually cost us a chance to win the game,” Charapata said. “The missed shots were good looks, but the ball didn’t fall in the hoop for us and it did for Burlington.”
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