News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Hillman’s Billy Kolcan (22) takes a jump shot over Au Gres defender Cade Steelman (5) during the first quarter of a boys basketball game on Tuesday at Hillman High School.

HILLMAN — Slow starts at home have started becoming a trend for the Hillman boys basketball team.

Fortunately the Tigers are able to pick it up as the game gets going which was the case Tuesday as the Tigers were pushed to limit, but held on to beat Au Gres 62-55 to run their North Star League winning streak to 49 games, regular season win streak to 46 and their home court winning streak to 38.

“We have to just get back to playing loose. I think we have been playing too tight recently,” Hillman coach Eric Muszynski said. “We shot the ball poor, didn’t execute on our screens and Au Gres gave us trouble because of their size.”

The Tigers (8-0) opened up a 6-2 lead, but struggled from everywhere on the court shooting the ball as they missed several easy looks under the basket and couldn’t get anything to fall from beyond the three point line in the first quarter.

Hillman also struggled rebounding early as the size of the Wolverines’ two big men, Trent Jantzi and Cade Steelman gave the Tigers fits as they controlled the glass, collecting rebounds and making the most of second and third chances on the offensive end as Au Gres went on a 14-4 run to grab a six point lead after one quarter.

It took the Tigers some time to get going in the second quarter as they were held scoreless for over three minutes. Hillman scored nine unanswered points and tied the game at 19 with 2:25 left in the half, but Au Gres answered back and Trevor Jamroz hit a late three to give the Wolverines a 28-25 halftime lead.

“We did a lot of standing around in the first half. I thought Au Gres gained position on us all night long and we were undersized and we needed to box out and get position and that’s something we didn’t do early on,” Muszynski said. “At the half we just made some adjustments to double down and shrink the floor. We talked about doubling Jantzi and it worked early, but we got away from it late and fortunately for us we made some shots down the stretch.”

Both teams came out of the break exchanging baskets, but Hillman hit a three midway through the third quarter from Gunnar Libby which gave the Tigers their first lead since the early stages of the first quarter.

Steelman answered with a quick two, but Jared Juergens came back and hit another three to give the Tigers a 38-36 lead with 2:34 left in the third quarter and it was a lead Hillman was able to keep thanks to some solid all around play at both ends of the court from Billy Kolcan.

With Libby exiting with an ankle injury for over a three minute stretch in the fourth quarter, Kolcan stepped up scoring two early baskets in the fourth quarter to help the Tigers open up a 10 point lead late.

Au Gres did everything it could and took advantage of the absence of Libby, cutting the lead to 56-53 with 1:42 left in the game.

Juergens hit another big three on Hillman’s next trip down the floor and Kolcan jumped in front of Jantzi to intercept a pass in the corner with 1:07 left, which proved to be one of the biggest plays of the game as the Tigers were able to close the game out at the free throw line.

“I think Billy is capable of being a double digit scorer and we all know that. Defensively, he was a huge spark for us and the play that he made in the corner tonight was huge for his. You need different guys to step up every night and fortunately that’s what we have had lately,” Muszynski said.

Hillman was led by Brandon Banks who scored a team high 17 points. Libby added 10 points, Kolcan collected nine points, Andrew Funk had eight and Kory Henigan chipped in with seven points.

Jantzi led all scorers with 24 points and Steelman added 20 as the two combined for all but 11 of the Wolverines’ points in the losing effort.

The Tigers will be back in action tonight against Gaylord St. Mary, who comes in with a 7-3 record.

“The Ski-Valley is a pretty good league and they’re always competitive. They have great guard play and have a little bit of sized. They are a little more balanced team than what we’ve seen recently,” Muszynski said. “We have got to come out ready to go at home and we should be excited for another challenge. We continue to get everyone’s A game and it will be no different tonight against Gaylord St. Mary.”

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HILLMAN (62) — A. Funk, 3 0-0 8; G. Libby, 2 4-6 10; B. Banks, 7 0-0 17; B. Kolcan, 4 1-2 9; J. Juergens, 2 0-0 6; M. Hunt, 0 1-2 1; K. Henigan, 1 5-6 7; N. Taratuta, 2 0-0 4.

AU GRES (55) — T. Jantzi, 10 4-5 24; C. Steelman, 9 2-10 20, C. Zeien, 1 0-0 3; T. Jamroz, 3 0-0 8.

Jonny Zawacki can be reached via email at jzawacki@thealpenanews.com or by phone at 358-5690.