News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Cooper Bright (33) scores an unnoticed layup while teammate Jack Schmanski (5) looks on in the third quarter of Big North Conference boys basketball game against Gaylord on Friday at Alpena High School. The Wildcats defeated the Blue Devils 75-57 to improve to 3-0 on the season.

If there was any doubt heading into this season as to whether or not the Alpena High boys basketball team would take a step back after losing a handful of key players off of last years team, the Wildcats put that question to rest on Friday as they faced their first Big North Conference test of the year and took care of Gaylord 75-57 in a game that was never in doubt and belonged to the Wildcats.

Alpena (3-0, 1-0 BNC) played with tremendous speed all night long, moving up and down the floor at a rapid rate, while scoring with efficiency as they opened a double digit lead after one quarter and never looked back.

“Both ends of the court we played with a lot of speed. We talked about it coming in, I think we have good depth and we have athletes. We don’t have that 6-5 guy, but we’ve got a lot of guys in that 6-2 range and they play fast and their confidence is growing and you can see that. I think these last two games have been really positive with the way we’ve been playing on both ends so it’s huge and fun to watch,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “We shot the ball really well and that’s huge because it builds your confidence and it can help you demoralize your opponent and I think you saw a combination of that tonight and it was just relentless. For three quarters we put pressure on them and there was no let up and as a coach that’s the ultimate when you see your team playing with that much speed and confidence. For the most part we made a lot of good decisions and overall I’m very pleased. That’s the way we want to play and that looked good.”

The second quarter proved to be the difference as the Wildcats were zoned in at both ends of the court.

Gaylord opened the quarter with a three to cut the lead to eight, but it was as close as the Blue Devils were able to get the rest of the night as they were held scoreless the rest of the half and Alpena scored 16 unanswered to close out the first half and blow the game wide open.

The Wildcats disrupted Gaylord’s offense and turned Blue Devil turnovers into easy baskets. Alpena moved the ball around to create more easy looks and even the easy looks the Wildcats weren’t getting continued to fall as a balanced scoring attack provided a huge lead and more than enough points for Alpena to come away with a lopsided victory.

“It was important to get this first conference win, especially because it was at home. We have a tough road stretch in January, we’re not home much so we have to take care of our home court and going 2-0 this week. I thought we played well Tuesday and even better tonight,” Pintar said. “The downside is now we have a two week break, which is really disappointing, but I like the confidence and we’ll just take that in over break and keep building on that during practice. I like the direction our team is going right now.”

The energy continued early in the second half and the Wildcats continued to find ways to score.

The third quarter belonged to Jordan Schultz who scored 12 of his team high 16 points in the quarter to help Alpena take a 66-28 lead into the fourth.

Three other Wildcats were in double figures as Adam Urlaub and Kelley Stark each finished with 14 points apiece and Cooper Bright added 10 points. Ryan Voltz and Jadon Duncan each chipped in with nine points apiece and all but one Wildcat cracked the scoring column in the win.

“Our first game of the year we were really sloppy, but I think a lot of that just had to do with changing roles. All of these guys had experience last year, but they weren’t counted on and I think they got that out of their way and I thought this week we practiced really well and we transitioned our practice into the game. Being 3-0 and the way we started has shown we have improved a lot already,” Pintar said. “I’ve seen a lot of improvement from these guys. I give them credit because they worked really hard last year against really good upperclassmen so now it’s their turn. Sometimes people forget what they were doing and how hard they worked. The way these guys practice last year, made them better and you’re starting to see that now. If you practice really hard, good things happen and that’s what is going on with these guys right now and credit to them.”

The Alpena JV team defeated Gaylord 48-20.

Trevor Soik and Andrew Fisher led the Wildcats with eight points apiece in the win.

The Alpena JV team fell to Gaylord 43-33.

Nicholas Geister led Alpena with 10, Brady Kollen finished with six points and Brady Pagels added five points.

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BOX SCORE: Field goals made/Free-throws made/Free-throws attempted/Total points

ALPENA (75): A. Urlaub, 5 2-5 14; R. Voltz, 4 1-2 9; J. Schmanski, 1 0-0 2; L. Tucker, 1 1-3 1; J. Duncan, 3 1-2 9; K. Stark, 6 0-0 14; C. Bright, 5 0-3 10; J. Schultz, 8 0-0 16.

GAYLORD (57): K. McKenzie, 3 2-2 10; G. Freeman, 1 0-0 3; R. Gapinski, 3 2-3 8; C. Gahm, 6 2-2 18; C. Deer, 4 2-2 10; C. LaRose, 4 0-0 8.