News Photo by Owen Kinzey Alpena’s Colt Gray takes a shot during the first half of a boys basketball game on Thursday against Cadillac at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — The Alpena High boys basketball team took on its toughest challenge yet on Thursday.

The Wildcats played Cadillac for the second time this season and both games resulted in domination for the Vikings.

On Thursday, Alpena was defeated by a final score of 70-33. Cadillac’s intense defense forced Alpena into a tough spot on offense and the Vikings were nearly unstoppable on offense.

Although the final score ended in a loss for the Wildcats, the team regained star guard Devin Lamay for the first time this season.

“You never want anyone to get hurt, especially a player like Devin. He’s a very dedicated athlete and it’s a huge improvement to this team to add back a guy like him,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “Even though this wasn’t the outcome of the game we were looking for, he was the bright spot of tonight’s game.”

Alpena began the game with several great defensive stands and held Cadillac down for the first time this year. Five blocks by the Wildcats in the first quarter led the defense and helped gain a little bit of momentum early.

With 3:52 left in the quarter, Lamay was sent to the line for two free-throws. Lamay knocked down one of the free-throws, recording his first points on the season.

Even though Alpena played phenomenal defense, the Wildcats couldn’t match that effort offensively. Only 13 points were scored between both teams in the quarter, and the Wildcats found themselves in a 9-4 deficit going into the second quarter.

The defense started to crumble in the second, when Alpena was outscored nine points to 22 points. Another problem that arose was foul trouble. Late and unnecessary fouls led to many chances for the Vikings to score on offense.

Cadillac had a 13-31 lead going into the break with all of the momentum.

Coming out of halftime, the Vikings showed no signs of slowing down. Passing the ball around to six different scorers that couldn’t miss secured Cadillac another 20 point quarter.

Meanwhile, Alpena barely scored double-digit points and fell into an even bigger hole. By the end of the third quarter, the Wildcats were down 51-23.

During the final quarter, Cadillac continued to rack up the points scoring 19. With those points, the Vikings easily dribbled out the clock and seized the 70-33 win.

“That’s the best team in our conference and they’re a top-10 team in the state of Michigan. They have depth, size, and every guy out there can shoot, so they’re just a really hard team to defend. Some games you’re just going to run into a really good basketball team,” Pintar said.

Leading the Wildcats in scoring on Thursday was Easton Srebnik and Lamay. Srebnik finished with 16 points while Lamay had 12.

Jayden Montague and Charlie Howell led the Vikings in scoring. Montague finished with a game-high 20 points and Howell had 16.

Alpena plays Ogemaw Heights on Tuesday.