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Alpena holds off Cheboygan rally for win

Courtesy Photo/Cheboygan Daily Tribune Alpena's Chris DeRocher (33) works against Cheboygan's Trent Demeuse (11) during the second half in Cheboygan on Monday.

CHEBOYGAN — For many seasons now, head coach John Pintar and the Alpena Wildcats have made it look easy against the Cheboygan Chiefs despite playing on the road.

But in the second half, as the Chiefs willed their way back into the game with red-hot shooting, the Wildcats were up against it.

Thankfully for Pintar, his team just about had an answer for everything the Chiefs were throwing at it.

Led by a 30-point performance from 6-foot-4 sophomore forward Chris DeRocher, the Wildcats withstood a furious Cheboygan rally and held on for a 72-63 non-conference victory on Monday night.

“(Cheboygan) made a great run. I told our guys — we hit a three right at the start of the half to go up 20 — and I said from that point on that we were running backwards, and Cheboygan was making a lot of shots from the outside, they just kept playing really aggressive,” said Pintar, whose team’s lead fell to just five late in the fourth quarter before holding on. “At times we had answers, and other times we didn’t. Fortunately we built a nice lead at half that we were able to withstand that, but otherwise I thought Cheboygan played a great second half.

“I think if they play like that in districts, they got a good chance to do some damage.”

After a sloppy offensive performance in the first half — one in which they scored just five points in the second quarter and trailed 32-15 at the break — the Chiefs came out scorching in the third.

Led by some quick inside buckets from senior forward Logan Guenther (15 points, seven rebounds, three blocks) and silky smooth outside shooting from junior guard Adam Danks (team-high 17 points, three assists), the Chiefs fought their way back into the game, cutting the once 20-point deficit to seven.

The Wildcats used key buckets of their own from DeRocher, sophomore Logan Guthrie (15 points) and senior Cam Decaire (15 points) to take a 51-40 lead going into the fourth, but the Chiefs came back again when

Danks scored a bucket with 6:10 left to cut the advantage to six.

Senior forward Trent Demeuse (11 points) then got into the act, drilling a three-pointer to make it a five-point Alpena lead with 1:15 remaining.

However, the Wildcats, who held a 37-11 advantage in free throw attempts, knocked down their shots from the charity stripe to stave off Cheboygan’s comeback.

While the Chiefs (8-10) were on the losing end, they played arguably their best half of basketball this season over the final two quarters.

“We dug ourselves a hole in the first half,” said Cheboygan coach Rick Swiderek, whose squad overcame the first half with a 48-point performance in the second, their highest point total in a half this season. “We couldn’t get anything to go, we weren’t playing well (in the first half), didn’t play good team ball, I think, we didn’t move the ball properly, but I’m really happy with the way we played in the second half.

“Our kids, to their credit — and we didn’t do a lot of good things in the first half — but we came out in the second half and battled, we put some pressure and scored 48 points, so that’s impressive for us.

“It was good to see because some kids started hitting some shots.”

Among those was Danks, who scored 14 points in the second half, while Guenther added 13 of his 15 in the second.

Danks, Guenther, Demeuse and sophomore forward Zavin Goodrich (eight points) all gave the Chiefs solid contributions in the contest.

For the Chiefs, contributions from multiple players could potentially make them very dangerous come district tournament time next week.

“It’s good to see kids hit some shots because we haven’t been shooting well in the last three or four games,” Swiderek said. “We were also 1-for-6 from the free throw line in the first half, so I addressed that at halftime. We wouldn’t have been in such a big hole if we made free throws. The way we fought back is an encouraging sign.

“We got ourselves back in the game, but we couldn’t quite get over the hump.”

For the Wildcats (8-11), they used a 20-5 start to the contest behind DeRocher and Guthrie.

“That was big,” Pintar said. “I know coming up here, they’re a good team that will fight ya and scrap ya, especially on their home floor. I always go back and tell our guys that Petoskey came here last year.

Petoskey had one loss last year, and it was to (Cheboygan) on this floor, so they’re more than capable of getting hot and getting going on this floor. We saw it in the second half.

“That’s a credit to Rick (Swiderek) because their kids never gave up, responded and made a great run.”

Asher Bury, Henry Grondin, Max Klinger and Mike Radle rounded out Cheboygan with three points apiece.

Cheboygan will host Harbor Springs on Tuesday in their home finale, which will be Senior Night for the Chiefs.

In the junior varsity game, Hadyn Goebel scored 20 points to lead Alpena to a 54-26 victory over Cheboygan.

For Cheboygan, Avery Bury had nine points, David Millmine and Tristan Schley each had three, Cody Jewell, Robert Bruce, Sam Schneider, Mikey Swiderek and Aaron Leech each had two, and Michael Gofourth had one.

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