News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Jadon Duncan takes a contested shot over Traverse City City defender Carson Hall during the fourth quarter of a Big North Conference boys basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School.

Friday’s Big North Conference showdown was a tale of two completely different halves for the Alpena High boys basketball team.

Through one half of play, the Wildcats (7-5, 1-4 BNC) put together their best performance of the season, holding Traverse City Central (11-3, 3-2 BNC) to just 12 points as Alpena shut down the Trojans, despite being undersized. The Wildcats didn’t allow Central to get many open looks and held their own, limiting second and third chance opportunities as the Trojans were ice cold.

Unfortunately, the shots started falling for Central, the Trojans scored 42 second half points and found a way to stun Alpena 54-47 on its home court in front of a packed crowd on Wall of Fame night at Alpena High School.

“They’re (Central) is a really good basketball team. You know they would start making some shots, but what we didn’t anticipate was the amount of threes that a few of their guys hit and that was really huge for them. We knew a couple of their guys could shoot, but they had a couple of other guys knock down threes that were just big overall for them,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “They started to get second and third chances and a it really came down to turnovers. That has hurt us before at the end of games and that’s what we talked about. We can’t turn the basketball over and we had a lead, but turned the basketball over that led to easy points late which were crucial. It’s those things that we have to try and avoid if you want to win these close games.”

The Trojans entered on a seven-game win streak and Alpena grabbed momentum early. The Wildcats looked sharp doing so as they scored 10 unanswered points to take an early 10-2 advantage. It was one they held and continued to try and build on throughout the first half.

The Wildcats took advantage of Central’s poor shooting early, but Alpena’s defense was just as tremendous, locking down Central for the first 16 minutes.

The Trojans scored two baskets to begin the second quarter and cut the lead to three before Pintar called a timeout. Alpena regrouped and went on another run, scoring eight straight points to take an 11 point lead late in the half.

Alpena held a 23-12 advantage at the break after a tremendous half of play.

“We were really locked in defensively in that first half, but the second half we gave them too many opportunities. We got bumped around inside and they were able to take advantage of that and that was a concern coming in because that was a big basketball team,” Pintar said, “Our guys fought tooth and nail for everything, but we had one tough stretch in the third quarter that was big for their momentum in the game.”

After not making a three in the first half, Central started to settle in and the shots began falling in a big way.

Trailing 27-20 midway through the third quarter, the Trojans connected on four consecutive three point shots and cut the lead to 35-34 after three quarters.

After a pair of Alpena free-throws , the Trojans nailed their fifth straight triple try to tie the game at 37 with seven minutes to play.

The rest of the game was a back-and-forth battle that featured plenty of emotion and momentum swings.

“I thought we did a great job being resilient. We talked about before the game, we knew they were going to make runs, they are a good basketball team so no matter how this game goes, there was going to be a run by them one way or the other and that third quarter was the run for them and I thought we responded,” Pintar said. “In the fourth quarter we were back to getting stops and we had a lead late, but what it came down to was we had some critical turnovers that led to baskets, which was the worst kind of turnover. We have to secure the basketball and play through some of the contact and we just didn’t do that. Tonight that was the difference and I think if we play through those things, I think we finish that game out, because we regained the momentum late and had the lead, but it wasn’t to be.”

Central took its first lead since scoring the first basket of the game when Carson Briggs scored a layup to put the Trojans ahead 39-37 with six minutes to play.

Alpena responded with two straight baskets from Jack Schmanski and Kelley Stark to regain a two point lead, but Josh Burnham tied the game at 41 with 3:04 to play.

The final seven minutes featured three ties and four lead changes.

The Wildcats appeared to receive the momentum boost they needed when Jordan Schultz went up strong to basket, scored a layup and was fouled and completed the three point play, by converting the free-throw attempt for his team-high 14th point on the night to give Alpena a 44-41 lead. The Wildcats got a stop on Central’s next possession and Cooper Bright got a basket to go to put Alpena up five with just over two minutes to play.

The final two minutes were physical and intense on both sidelines, but it was Central who was able to take advantage of Wildcat mistakes late, scoring 13 of the final 14 points to escape with a win.

“We did our own thing and made our own mistakes, but there was definitely two or three no calls that certainly were huge for them. Throughout the game it wasn’t the issue, but late in the game there was two to three crucial plays that led to baskets and in a close game that can be the difference,” Pintar said. “Unfortunately, we have to fight through that and we weren’t able to do that tonight. Sometimes when you don’t get the whistle you have to fight through it and we weren’t able to do that.”

The Trojans scored scored the go ahead basket off of a turnover and went up 48-47 with 40 seconds to go. Another turnover led to Alpena being forced to foul and Henry Goldkuhle made a pair of free-throws to put Central up 50-47 with 25 seconds to play.

The Wildcats drew up a play and got the ball into the hands of Stark, but the senior missed a deep contested three and Alpena was once again forced to foul and the Trojans put the game away making six of their last seven free-throws in the final seconds.

“I think we did a pretty good job getting the ball into Kelley’s hand. We talked about it after about passing a little early to let them curl because I wanted to have an option with that much time, I don’t think you have to go for the three pointer. If the guy is trailing to curl and take it to the hoop and make a basket inside as well,” Pintar said. “I thought the execution wasn’t bad and for Kelley, I thought he got a relatively clean look up there and he’s our best shooter so we’ll take that every time, but it just wasn’t to be.”

Along with Schultz, Stark finished with 12 points, while Cooper Bright and Jack Schmanski each added nine points apiece.

Goldkuhle scored a game high 16 points in the win to lead the Trojans. Burnham finished with 12 points and Peyton Smith chipped in with eight points.

Alpena will be back in action on Tuesday when the Wildcats host Cheboygan.

The Alpena JV and freshman teams also suffered defeats.

The JV team lost 44-36. Andrew Fisher scored 13 points and Austin Prue added eight points.

The Wildcat freshman team lost 44-40. Nicholas Geister scored 11 points and Brady Pagels chipped in with nine points.

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

TC CENTRAL (54): C. Hall, 2 1-2 6; H. Goldkuhle, 4 6-6 16; P. Smith, 4 0-1 8; C. Bourdo, 1 0-2 2; J. Burnham, 5 0-2 12; K. Warner, 2 0-0 4; C. Briggs, 3 0-0 6.

ALPENA (47): J. Schmanski, 4 0-2 9; J. Duncan, 1 1-2 3; K. Stark, 4 2-4 12; C. Bright, 2 5-7 9; J. Schultz, 5 4-5 14.