News Photo by Steve Jakubcin Hillman High School’s Trenton Taratuta leaps for the basket during Hillman’s 49-45 victory over Oscoda Friday night at Oscoda High School. Taratuta finished the night with 28 points.

Hillman finishes the regular season 20-2 with a victory over Oscoda on the road 49-45.

With the win, Hillman secured its ninth 20-win season in program history and would conclude the regular season winning 15 straight games and adding to their impressive winning streaks of 51 in a row in the overall NSL and 34 straight in the Little Dipper division.

The Tigers were led by All-State guard Trenton Taratuta with 28 points. The team played a great team defense overall.

“I was impressed with our defense for three-quarters tonight and I say that because we gave up 20 points in the third quarter so essentially we held them to under double digits for three of the four quarters,” said Hillman coach Eric Muszynski. “Collecting the 20th win on the season was a great way to finish and I’m happy for the team. This game was a great test heading into the state tournament and Oscoda is a nice team and well-coached!”

Thad Spragg led the Owls with 11, Jaeden Ullman and Blake Mallak both followed with nine, Jack LeClair chipped in seven, Hunter Perez with five, and Connor McNichol and Tyler Sheffer both finished with two points.

Oscoda drops to 15-6 and will play the winner of Tawas versus Roscommon on Wednesday.

“I’m proud of our effort, we battled season-ending injuries and then some illness all week and my guys laid it all out on the floor,” said Oscoda coach Mike Poland. “We trailed the entire first half and were down eight by the half. We put a really nice eight-minute stretch in the third quarter (20-12) and tied the game. Jaeden Ullman came in off the bench and really gave us a spark with all nine of his points in the second half.

Thad Spragg, Connor McNichol, Hunter Perez, and Tyler Sheffer are a special group of seniors and have done so much for our program.

We will get back to work and prepare for the District Tournament next week.”