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Coming up short

Wildcats fall in season opener to Tawas 48-44

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Tawas guard Owen Irvin (20) splits Alpena defenders Cam DeCaire (23) and Isaac Jore and scores on a layup during the first quarter of a basketball game on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

It wasn’t the start to the season that the Alpena boys basketball team was hoping for as they came up on the short end of a 48-44 defeat on their home court against Tawas on Tuesday night.

“I’m not going to use youth as an excuse for too long, but we are a young team that just weren’t quite ready. I kept telling them what it was going to be like, but I guess they need to experience these things,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “We have a lot of guys that are trying to figure out what level they should be playing at and we started off slow and didn’t wake up until the fourth quarter.”

Both teams looked sluggish right from the opening tip as the Wildcats held a slim 9-7 lead in what was a low scoring first quarter. Alpena connected on three shots from behind the long line which equaled its total for the opening quarter.

Mistakes and the inability to rebound caught up to the Wildcats in the second quarter as Tawas opened the quarter going on a 9-0 run to take a 16-9 lead.

Alpena was held to just six points in the second quarter and despite a disappointing start, the Wildcats went into the half trailing by just nine points.

“We got outworked tonight and we gave Tawas to many chances, but give them credit because they played hard all night,” Pintar said. “At half time we talked about getting it out of system, clean up our mistakes and slowly cut into the lead.”

Unfortunately Alpena was unable to cut into that lead in the third quarter as again the Wildcats had trouble rebounding and trailed 35-23 after three quarters.

Tawas scored a quick bucket in the fourth to extend the lead to 15 which was the largest lead of the night, but the Wildcats showed a lot of heart in the final six minutes of the game as they went on a 9-0 run of their own to cut the lead to four with 5:25 left.

The run was sparked by the duo of cam DeCaire and Chris Derocher. DeCaire connected on two free throws after a technical foul was called on Braves guard Owen Irvin. Derocher also nailed two free throws and got a layup to fall and which brought Alpena within four and forced a Braves timeout.

The Wildcats did everything they could to even the score as Derocher was fouled on a three point shot and made all three free throws to bring Alpena to within one with 40 seconds left.

“That’s what I expect from these guys. I think these guys have a lot of fight and a lot of heart. We just have to learn how to win because were a team that’s going to have to earn it and nothing is going to be given to us,” Pintar said.

After being forced the foul, Michael Anderson extended the Braves lead to three after making two free throw. On Alpena’s next trip down the floor, Derocher saw a contested layup rattle out with five seconds left and the Wildcats were forced to foul yet again and Irvin iced the game making the second of two free throws to help Tawas hold on for the victory.

“It’s a long season and this is a bump and a disappointing one at the start, but I think we’ll learn from this and continue getting better,” Pintar said.

Derocher led the way for Alpena scoring 18 points on the night. DeCaire added 12 points and Logan Guthrie chipped in with nine points in the losing effort.

Irvin led the Braves pouring in a game high 22 points. Dakota Rupp added 10 points and Anderson chipped in with seven.

The Wildcats will be back in action on Friday when they travel to Alma.

Alpena’s JV team beat Tawas by a score of 38-12. Josh Smith, Aden Smith and Clay Donajkowski each had seven points in the win. The Wildcat Freshman team was also victorious as they beat Boyne City 48-30. Kelly Stark led Alpena with 14 points and Tyler Dickinson added six points.

——

TAWAS (48) — P. Romberger, 1 0-0 2; J. Krumm, 1 2-2 4; D. Rupp, 4 1-2 10; M. Anderson, 2 3-4 7; O. Irvin, 6 6-10 22; K. Railling, 2 1-2 3.

ALPENA (44) — W. Martin 1 0-0 3; L. Pinger, 0 2-2 2; C. DeCaire, 2 7-7 12; C. Derocher, 6 5-5 18; L. Guthrie, 4 0-0 9.

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Tawas guard Owen Irvin (20) splits Alpena defenders Cam DeCaire (23) and Isaac Jore and scores on a layup during the first quarter of a basketball game on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

News Photo by Jonny Zawacki
Tawas guard Owen Irvin (20) splits Alpena defenders Cam DeCaire (23) and Isaac Jore and scores on a layup during the first quarter of a basketball game on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

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