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A heck of an effort

DeRocher hits milestone as Wildcats fall to Petoskey

News Photo by James Andersen Alpena's Chris DeRocher (33) drives to the basket past Petoskey's Daniel Kolp (34) and Collin Kingma during a boys basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School.

Chris DeRocher turned dreams into reality on Friday.

The Alpena High junior scored 20 points during a 49-43 loss to Petoskey at Alpena High School in a Big North Conference contest, doing everything he could to help his team win.

In the process, he also joined some elite company.

The three-year starter became just the fourth Alpena player to reach 1,000 career points. With 1,001 points he now sits in fourth place on Alpena’s all-time scoring list behind Butch Feher (1,436), Tyler Pintar (1,261) and Harvey Marlatt (1,056).

When he began playing for the Wildcats, DeRocher thought it might be cool to one day see his name in the school record books, but he didn’t automatically think it would happen.

News Photo by James Andersen Alpena's Haydn Goebel (34) looks for an open teammate while being defended by Petoskey's Joel Wilson (14) and Daniel Kolp during a boys basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School.

“It feels great. I’ve been putting in a lot of work. For the past three years I’ve been on this team I’ve been putting in the work a lot. It’s just good to see all the hard work I’ve done pay off,” DeRocher said. “I always thought it’d be amazing to do that, but it’s a pretty surreal moment; I never really thought I would.”

DeRocher’s big night came during an inspired effort by the Wildcats (7-7, 0-7 Big North) who did everything they could to push the league-leading Northmen. Alpena led 18-16 at halftime, fell behind in the third quarter and then rallied back to make it close late in the fourth quarter.

After a 48-24 drubbing in Petoskey last month, Friday’s game showcased an Alpena team that more than held its own against the league’s upper echelon.

“”I told the guys I’m so proud of their effort. I thought we competed all night, we battled a top-notch team, a great program in our conference and we did everything you could ask of our team,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “You make a couple plays here and there and look back over the game and the shoots you missed or the mistakes you made. You just flip a couple of those around it can make the difference.”

Alpena trailed 34-26 after three quarters after an early run by the Northmen, but battled back to within three with 5:07 left. Foul trouble allowed Petoskey to pull away again with free throws and Alpena trailed 45-35 with a minute left.

The Wildcats didn’t go quietly as Colin Donajkowski scored and DeRocher stole the ball and fed Bruz Copping for a basket inside, making it 45-39 with 40 seconds to go.

DeRocher hit his milestone with 18 seconds left, draining a three-pointer. Just four seconds earlier, he missed the back end of a one-and-one, but found the ball in his hands a short time later and drained the shot. DeRocher pumped his fist and was quickly surrounded by his teammates as play stopped to acknowledge his accomplishment.

“It was kind of lucky on my part. I ended up missing a shot and got it back and made the shot to get to 1,000 points, pretty sweet,” DeRocher said.

As much of a focal point as DeRocher has been for Alpena this season, the Wildcats began the game with a guard-heavy lineup, hoping to use speed to counter Petoskey’s strength and size. It worked early as Copping and Aidan Goike led Alpena’s offense to keep things close.

Goike finished in double figures with 12 points.

“We talked about how they’re going to pay attention with two, sometimes three guys on Chris and the other guys have to play off that and take advantage of those opportunities and spread the floor a little bit,” Pintar said. “”They paid so much attention to him and for him to step up like he did tonight and make some huge shots for us, he’s a good player and he showed that tonight.”

Alpena trailed 10-5 after one quarter and trailed by six before DeRocher got going. After a scoreless first quarter, DeRocher caught fire in the last 2:46, scoring eight points. He sank a triple, lofted an easy jumper over a defender and drained another trey at the buzzer to give Alpena the halftime lead.

Daniel Kolp threw down a two-handed slam to begin the third quarter and Petoskey began to flex its muscle for the first time all night. The Northmen went on a 12-0 run to begin the quarter. Petoskey threaded its way inside and threatened to pull away further after Joel Wilson scored on a breakaway dunk with 4:36 left.

Wilson led Petoskey with 19 points, Kolp had 12 and Seth Mann added 11.

With less than two minutes left in the quarter, DeRocher hit a three-pointer and Haydn Goebel followed with a basket to pull Alpena to within four. The Northmen finished the quarter with two baskets in the last 38 seconds.

Down 10 early in the fourth quarter, Alpena made another run as Goike hit a shot, DeRocher converted a three-point play and Goike sank two important free throws to make it 36-33.

Petoskey’s JV team defeated Alpena 62-31. Kelley Stark led Alpena with 17 points and Jack Schmanski added six.

Petoskey’s freshman team defeated Alpena 45-30. Patrick McCourt led Alpena with six points.

——

PETOSKEY (49): S. Mann 2 6-8 11; J. Wilson 7 5-7 19; D. Kolp 5 2-5 12; G. Whitmore 1 0-0 2; J. Lee 2 1-1 5.

ALPENA (43): Co. Donajkowski 2 0-0 4; A. Goike 4 2-3 12; B. Copping 2 0-0 4; C. DeRocher 6 4-5 20; H. Goebel 1 1-4 3.

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