News Photo by James Andersen Alcona's Jordan Steiner (14) drives inside for a basket while being defended by Mio's Ty Modgling in the first half of a boys basketball game in Lincoln on Friday.

LINCOLN–There’s still quite a bit of time left in the regular season, but the Alcona boys basketball team seems to be jelling at the right time.

The Tigers backed up an incredible defensive effort with more than enough offense to take down Mio 57-23 on Friday during a game where little seemed to go wrong.

Alcona (9-4) knocked down shots from everywhere on the floor, it forced turnovers, collected rebounds and hounded the Thunderbolts all game long.

“We’re coming along. We’re progressing at the right time which is good and it helps when shots go down,” Alcona coach Toby Suttle said. “I’m proud of the boys.”

Jordan Steiner scored 12 points and Conner McCoy and Alex Stephenson added 10 and eight points respectively for the Tigers who raced out to a 15-1 lead to begin the game and never looked back.

Alcona’s fast start offensively was matched by a stellar defensive effort that saw the Thunderbolts powerless to have many open shots against Alcona’s mix of zone and man-to-man defense.

“We were really active. Any time you get guys playing hard and moving in the right direction, you’ve got a better chance of being successful,” Suttle said. “Guys played really hard.”

Alcona’s offensive output slowed for a few minutes in the second quarter, but the Tigers found a rhythm again late as they ended the period on a 11-0 for a 33-6 lead. McCoy hit two of Alcona’s eight three-pointers in the final 33 seconds and Steiner hit one with 1:17 to play.

Alcona’s success outside was balanced by a potent inside attack in the first quarter as Devon Mills, Antavius Mikazes routinely beat Mio defenders in the paint.

“We want to go inside a lot until that’s not there and once that’s not there hopefully we can go outside and knock those down,” Suttle said. “We’ve spent a ton of time on it and I’m glad to see us make those shots.”

Reilly McMaster paced Mio with seven points.

Alcona led 45-15 after three quarters and gave its bench considerable playing time in the fourth quarter and those players scored several buckets that got the home crowd roaring. Matthew Krisan hit two three-pointers in the fourth quarter and Kevin Vonfintel scored Alcona’s final basket of the night, draining a three-pointer with 42 seconds left.

Alcona’s JV team won 44-19. Josh Kilbourn led Alcona with 10 points and Aiden Wrobel and Hunter Clark each added eight. Pete Socia led Mio with eight points.

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ALCONA (57): D. Mills 1 2-4 4; C. McCoy 3 1-2 10; J. Steiner 4 3-4 12; A. Mikazes 2 1-4 5; A. Stephenson 4 0-0 9; M. Krisan 3 0-0 8; L. Loyer 2 0-0 4; D. Stewart 1 0-0 2; K. Vonfintel 1 0-0 3.

MIO (23): B. DeFlorio 1 1-2 4; R. McMaster 3 1-4 7; T. Modgling 1 0-2 2; A. Hager 1 0-0 2; G. Anderson 2 0-0 5; G. Rhoads 0 3-4 3.