Courtesy photo Alpena senior Carter Green looks to inbound the ball during the first quarter of their game against Petoskey. The Wildcats would fall to the Northmen by a score of 79-42.

PETOSKEY – The Alpena Wildcats boys basketball team , 9-12, suffered a defeat to the Petoskey Northmen, 14-7, in a Big North Conference game on Thursday, 79-42.

The game was in Petoskey.

Alpena’s freshman guard Bryton Nostrant started things off offensively for the Wildcats, grabbing the defensive rebound and going coast-to-coast for the lay-up, making the score 3-2, Northmen.

Petoskey answered by going on an 11-4 run to pull away from the Wildcats as the buzzer sounded ending the first quarter of play, with the score 17-9, Northmen.

The Wildcats could not find a way to match the offensive performance from Petoskey as the Northmen increased their lead to 20 going into the half, 35-15.

Nostrant led all Alpena scorers with 18 points on the night.

Alpena returns to Petoskey on Monday to begin tournament play against Petoskey. That game is set for a 6 p.m. start.

The boy’s junior varsity team had a better fate than the varsity, as it came out on the winning side of a back and forth battle and outlasted the Northmen 45-40.

Sam Fitzpatrick led the way for Alpena offensively scoring 14 points.

Xander Barbeau contributed eight points, and MacGregor McClintic hit two critical free throws in the closing seconds to ice the win for Alpena.