Wildcats open postseason play with victory over Gaylord
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ALPENA -- The final day of February sure had a March feeling.
A ruckus home crowd provided a much-needed spark for the Alpena High girls basketball team as the Wildcats opened postseason play.
After splitting the regular season meetings, Big North Conference rivals Alpena and Gaylord met in the rubber match on Monday.
After a sluggish finish to the regular season and losing to Gaylord by double digits just a few nights ago, Alpena flipped the switch.
The Wildcats seemed to be in playoff mode as they defended their home court and cruised to a convincing 49-37 victory over the Blue Devils and advanced in the tournament.
"Our girls came ready to play tonight," Alpena coach Laura Dubey said. "We had seniors step up tonight and we just had good performances all around from all of our girls. We had a plan and we executed tonight."
The Wildcats made life difficult for Gaylord in the opening half with a suffocating defense.
Defense led to offense and despite opportunities to extend the lead, Alpena held a 13-5 lead after one quarter before pouring it on in a huge second quarter.
The Wildcats used an 11-0 run to open up a 26-7 lead late in the quarter and held a 29-12 halftime lead after a strong first half.
"We sat down the past few days and just talked about how we didn't want to be done playing," Dubey said. "This group gets along and they all made a decision that they were going to play together and it was really fun to watch this team play tonight."
The lid finally came off the basket for Gaylord in the third quarter as the Blue Devils were able to solve Alpena's defense. They scored eight of the first 10 points in the quarter to cut into the deficit.
Gaylord was able to trim the lead to 11 on three separate occasions in the quarter, but it was as close as the Blue Devils were able to get.
The Wildcats closed out the fourth quarter and put a stamp on their strong performance in its postseason opener, getting solid contributions all around.
Allison Urlaub and Avery Dubey led Alpena's balanced attack scoring 12 and 11 points respectively. Alayna Trelfa added nine hard earned points and was a force on the glass for the Wildcats. Jenna Leeck added eight points and Franciska Treiliha was a spark plug off the bench finishing with seven points and dishing a handful of dimes.
With the win, the Wildcats now advance to Wednesday's district semifinal where they will travel to take on the district's top seed, Marquette, to play for a chance to not only advance to Friday's district championship game. Should Alpena win Wednesday, they'll return home Friday for a chance to win a district title.
"I have big hopes for Wednesday and hopefully we turn it on again and keep it going," Dubey said. "We know Marquette is a good team and we're going to break down film and hopefully come out with the same intensity as we did tonight and be back in our own gym on Friday with a chance to win a district championship on our home floor in front of our home crowd, but we understand, this time of the year, it's one game at a time."
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BOX SCORE: Field Goals Made/Free Throws Made/Free Throws Attempted/Total Points
ALPENA (49): A. Urlaub, 4 2-2 12; J. Leeck, 3 2-2 8; R. Wisniewski, 1 0-0 2; A. Dubey, 3 4-4 11; A. Trelfa, 3 3-4 9; F. Treiliha, 3 0-0 7.
GAYLORD (37): A. Kozlowski, 0 3-4 3; M. Keen, 4 4-6 12; M. Kinser, 1 0-0 3; K. Neff, 2 1-2 6; K. Mumford, 3 1-3 7; A. Parker, 2 1-2 6.