News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena’s Tucker Bright shoots the ball during the first half of a boys basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — After suffering a tough loss to Cadillac, the Alpena High boys’ basketball team’s schedule did not get any easier.

The Wildcats were defeated by Petoskey on Friday, with a final score of 76-42.

The Northmen were unstoppable on offense all night and played a stifling defense that Alpena struggled against.

“That was just a very good basketball team,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “They have that combination of everything. They’re fast. They have good size. And every guy on that team can shoot the basketball. We struggled to cover everything, and that’s mostly because of our lack of size.”

Although the game got out of control during the second half, the Wildcats competed and kept up with Petoskey in the first two quarters.

Alpena came out of the gate knocking down its shots, including a three from Easton Srebnik, along with a couple of easy post shots for Colt Gray.

Even as the Wildcats made their shots, so did the Northmen. Petoskey’s leading scorer on the season, Cade Trudeau, made an impact early. Trudeau scored two easy baskets and made a three, putting the Wildcats in a pinch defensively.

During the second quarter, Petoskey began to pull away with the lead. The Northmen slowly outscored Alpena and recorded a 23-point second quarter. Trudeau scored the last nine points to end the half.

Going into the half, Alpena was down 38-24, with plenty of time to make a comeback if the Wildcats could stop Petoskey offensively.

Unfortunately for Alpena, the Northmen did not slow down at all.

Petoskey scored a game-high 24 points during the third quarter, with points scored by eight different players.

Entering the fourth quarter down by 26 points, the game was out of reach for Alpena. The Wildcats’ defense did improve during the quarter, but it was too late.

“I was pleased with how we played during the first half, and even going into the third quarter,” Pintar said. “We answered back with a lot of our own shots and got off to a quick start … but we began to make too many turnovers and missed too many shots during that second half.”

Leading the Wildcats in scoring was Gray, who finished with 13 points. Gray had an incredible first half, including double-digit scoring by halftime. Srebnik was Alpena’s second-leading scorer, with 10.

The standout for the Northmen was Trudeau with 20 points. Petoskey’s second-leading scorer was Evan Rindfusz, with nine points.

Alpena plays Sault Ste. Marie on Monday.