The Wildcats excelled on both sides of the court and dominated in aspects the team generally struggles with. Rebounding, shooting, and defending were all strengths on Tuesday night, and an overall great game from the entire team provided some slight momentum before taking on Petoskey this Friday.

“It’s good for everyone to get out there in some in-game action when you can’t replicate that kind of stuff in practice,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “I’m very happy for everyone. All eleven guys got an opportunity to play, and I liked what I saw from them all.”

Despite this massive win, the Braves kept up with the Wildcats and could stick with Alpena for most of the quarter.

Although Alpena’s defense didn’t get off to the quickest of starts, after being knotted up at 13-13, an incredible run put the Wildcats in a position where it would never look back.

News Photos by Steve Jakubcin Oliver Duthler goes for the shot during Tuesday night’s game in Alpena against Tawas. The Wildcats took the win with the final score being 72-28.

Alpena completed a 25-0 run from the middle of the first quarter to the 4:57 mark in the second quarter.

Tucker Bright and Connor Cameron led the scoring. Bright knocked down three three-pointers, and Cameron made two threes and a layup.

As the first quarter ended, Alpena was up 28-13, on pace to score the most it had all year.

During the second quarter, the Wildcats offense continued to excel, but this time from many different players.

Five players scored in the second, coming from Bright, Cameron, Easton Srebnik, Caleb McEwen, and Eddie Prue.

Srebnik led the way with six points, leading Alpena to score another 20 points during the quarter.

Going into halftime, Alpena was up 48-16, highlighted by the Wildcats defense only allowing three points in the entire quarter.

After the break, Alpena’s defense continued to suffocate the Braves, almost holding Tawas to zero points in the quarter.

Finally, with 52 seconds remaining, Tawas found the bottom of the basket and scored only three points for the quarter.

The Wildcats held their opponents to six points throughout the second and third quarters.

By demonstrating its stifling defense, Alpena allowed itself to coast the rest of the way to finish the win.

Before the game ended, Andrew Bebout scored his first points of the season as he sunk three out of four free throws before taking home the 72-28 win.

“We’ve played really well at home and have had a lot of really close games. We played the best team in our conference (Cadillac) really close at home, and if we can play like that, we’ve got a good chance against Petoskey on Friday,” Coach Pintar said. “We know they’re going to bring the pressure and press us; we just have to be ready to handle that intensity.”

Leading the Wildcats to its first victory of the New Year was Bright, who finished with 18 points on four three-pointers.

Just behind Bright, Cameron finished with the second-most points, accumulating 14.