News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Devin LaMay (1) drives to the basket during the third quarter of a Big North Conference boys basketball game against Traverse City West on Friday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, games are getting tighter and emotions are running higher.

Thus was the case Friday when the Alpena High boys basketball team hosted Big North Conference rival Traverse City West in a contest that gave both teams an early preview of the madness that March will bring in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, they were on the wrong end of a heartbreaking 58-57 loss to West.

“This is what we know with the league. This league every night there’s just no separation and we have a lot of really solid teams and it’s super competitive,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “This is what you’re going to see come tournament time. I thought we had opportunities tonight that we didn’t take advantage of.”

Alpena (8-7, 3-6 BNC) had opportunities late after clawing back from a pair of five point deficits in the second half. But the Wildcats saw a golden opportunity for a game-winning basket roll off the rim with five seconds to play.

The Wildcats fouled quickly after the miss and West (9-8, 6-3 BNC) missed the front end of a one-and-one as Pintar called a timeout with 1.4 seconds left.

The Wildcats heaved the ball the length of the floor, but were unable to get a shot off in time as the buzzer sounded.

West took its largest lead of the game and held a 46-41 lead late in the third quarter, but a basket by Mason Mumford beat the third quarter buzzer and sent the Wildcats into the fourth trailing 46-43.

Cooper Bright did all he could all night and carried the scoring load for Alpena. Bright scored the first five Wildcat points to begin the fourth quarter and converted an and-one opportunity to tie the game 48-48 with six and a half to play.

West responded and regained its five point lead after a pair of big shots from Ian Robertson, who scored a team high 17 points for the Titans.

Despite trailing 55-50 with 3:25 to go, Bright and Ryan Voltz were key to giving the Wildcats a chance late.

Voltz hit a pair of contested shots underneath the basket and Bright drilled a deep three to cut the lead to 56-55 with 1:20 left.

Voltz gave Alpena its final lead of the game when he muscled his way to the hoop and got a shot to fall and gave the Wildcats a 57-56 lead with 48 seconds remaining.

Robertson scored a basket to help West take the lead right back with 30 seconds left.

“We got hurt on the offensive glass tonight. They had too many second chance points and I think that was the biggest difference tonight,” Pintar said. “I thought we did a lot of good things on the offensive end, we just need to find a way to finish. It’s all cumulative, we fell behind and then got hot, but we had given them a lead and it puts a lot of pressure on you to be perfect and it’s a lot to ask from any team and we just can’t put ourselves in that position of chasing.”

The two sides played about as even an offensive half as you can get and traded buckets at a rapid pace in a tightly contested two quarters of play.

Alpena took the largest lead of the half early in the first quarter when the Wildcats held a 13-8 lead, but the rest of the half featured both sides filling the cup as the game was tied after one quarter 17-17.

The second was much the same as both teams went back and forth. Bright helped the Wildcats maintain their slim lead with eight of Alpena’s 14 points in the second quarter as the Wildcats took a 31-29 lead into the break.

Bright led all scorers pouring in a game high 29 points on the night and Voltz added 10 points.

The Wildcats have a quick turnaround as they are back in action today at home against Escanaba.

The Alpena freshman team lost 63-39. Jase Kollen scored nine points and Alex Beegan chipped in with eight points.

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BOX SCORE: Field Goals Made/Free Throws Made/Free Throws Attempted/Total Points

TC WEST (58): G. Schulexr, 1 0-0 2; J. O’Connor, 4 5-6 13; B. Habers, 2 1-2 6; I. Robertson, 7 0-0 17; J. Hirschenberger, 3 0-0 7; W. Gaston, 5 2-2 12; B. Schollett, 0 1-2 1.

ALPENA (57): C. Bright 10 5-7 29; T. Bright, 2 2-2 7; M. Mumford, 2 1-4 5; D. LaMay, 0 2-2 2; R. Voltz, 5 0-0 10; A. Prue, 1 0-0 2; E. Srebnik, 1 0-0 2.