News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alcona’s Aidan Wrobel (23) scores a basket over Rogers City defender Nick Freel during the first quarter of a North Star League Big-Dipper division game on Friday at Alcona High School.

LINCOLN — Dominic Howe showed confidence and came up clutch as the senior buried an eventual game-winning three pointer with 18 seconds left to propel the Alcona boys basketball team to a North Star League Big Dipper division win over Rogers City on Friday at Alcona High School.

Howe missed a corner three, but followed his shot, got the rebound, dribbled to the top of the arc and let another shot fly that tickled the twine as the Tigers (7-9, 3-5 NSL Big-Dipper) were able to avenge a loss earlier in the season at Rogers City (9-7, 4-4 NSL Big-Dipper) by edging the Hurons 40-38.

“I’ve been preaching to Dominic about trying to shoot with confidence and he wasn’t making a lot tonight, but we went to him. He showed confidence and perseverance to try and get a shot off and it worked out for us this time,” Alcona coach Ryan Bilbey said. “He showed a lot of patience, we showed a lot of patience tonight and that was nice to see as well. It was a battle, it always is a battle against Rogers City. I was proud of our work ethic tonight and our theme we’ve had this week is what do you want? How much does it cost? And are you willing to pay for it? That’s what we’ve talked about, just how much does it take to win and tonight we did what it took to win.”

Howe led the Tigers with 11 points, but none of his points were bigger than the three he made with just seconds remaining in the contest.

Rogers City was clinging to a one point lead, but got called for an over-and-back with 39 seconds left.

This gave the ball back to the Tigers and set up Howe’s heroics.

Rogers City advanced the ball quickly up the court after Howe’s three and turned the ball over and was forced to foul.

The foul sent Howe to the free-throw line, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity.

The Hurons corralled the rebound and head coach Matt Ponik called a timeout with 4.7 seconds to play.

Rogers City got the ball in the hands of J.D. Ellenberger, who took a mid range jump shot from the left wing, but had the ball rattle out as time expired.

“It’s just not doing the things that we are supposed to. We knew (Howe) was going to probably take the shot, we knew it was coming. We did a good job contesting it, but we didn’t box out and he got his offensive rebound, got it back and hit a three,” Ponik said. “In the last two games, we’re not doing the basics well enough. We haven’t shot real well the last two games and we just have to go back to the fundamentals and work on those. We worked on rebounding after last game, but we have to keep going back and doing it because that’s where the hurt us tonight was rebounding and getting extra chances. They made their shots at the end and we didn’t execute and that’s how it goes.”

The game was tight the entire way as the largest lead of the night was Rogers City’s five point lead late in the first quarter, but both teams battled in a physical game.

The two sides went into the break tied at 20 and needed to make adjustments offensively.

Alcona’s first half plan was to try and get the ball inside to big man Aidan Wrobel and the Hurons needed to figure out a way to get their offense going, especially leading scorer Nick Freel, who was held scoreless in the opening half.

“Rogers City always does a good job of rotating the help and digging and raking and doubling on the post. We wanted to get it to the post, but I also wanted our guys to make good decisions. Wrobel is really good in the post and we kind of used him as more of a decoy in the second half and get more looks along the perimeter and from outside,” Bilbey said. “We struggled shooting the ball today, but we made them when it counted and we had some key defensive stops to give us a spark late.”

Rogers City took a 29-27 lead into the fourth as Freel began to start finding his groove. The Hurons held a 38-34 lead with just over two minutes to play and Freel scored all of his game high 12 points in the second half, but Rogers City was shut out the rest of the way as the Tigers clamped down defensively, forced some crucial turnovers and made key stops late.

“You learn more about yourself from losses. Wins and awesome, but you learn a lot and for these kids it’s learning adversity and that’s what we’re learning now, myself included,” Ponik said. “We just have to keep fighting and come back the next day. Hats off to Alcona, they played well tonight.”

Both teams will return to the court on Tuesday.

Rogers City hosts Fairview and Alcona will travel to Au Gres.

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BOX SCORE: Field Goals Made/Free Throws Made/Free Throws Attempted/Total Points

ALCONA (40): D. Howe, 4 0-1 11; R. Barbato, 3 0-0 6; A. Wrobel, 4 2-4 10; D. Howe, 1 0-0 2; M. Clark, 3 1-2 4; G. Walker, 3 0-2 7.

ROGERS CITY (38): N. Freel, 4 4-5 12; C. Streich, 1 3-4 5; J. Fleming, 3 0-0 6; J. Ellenberger, 1 0-0 3; M. Newhouse, 1 3-5 5; L. Fleming, 1 1-2 3; D. Flewelling, 2 0-0 4.