News Photo by James Andersen Alpena’s Cooper Bright (33) puts up a shot while being defended by Cadillac’s Austin Abram during the first half of a boys basketball game on Friday at Alpena High School. Cadillac defeated Alpena 43-42 in overtime.

Jadon Duncan hit a big shot for the Alpena High boys basketball team on Friday night.

Then Tipp Baker hit a bigger one.

Baker’s uncontested layup and a last-second miss by the Wildcats on a three-point attempt was enough to give Cadillac a 43-42 overtime victory and a share of conference hardware at Alpena High School.

Baker’s game-winning bucket came with 1:32 left after Alpena turned the ball over trying to prevent it from going out of bounds. It gave the Vikings a 43-41 lead in a four-minute overtime period that saw Cadillac outscore Alpena 2-1.

It proved enough to beat the Wildcats, who cut the lead to one with six seconds left on a free throw from Jack Schmanski. Alpena got a clean look from deep with three seconds to play, but the shot just missed as time expired, allowing the Vikings (15-3, 8-2 BNC) to clinch at least a share of the Big North Conference title.

“You’ve got a team that leads the conference and you hold them into the 40s (offensively); there’s so many positives you can take out of it, I wish we could have the reward. I thought they (the Wildcats) deserved it tonight,” Alpena coach John Pintar said. “We had our chances in overtime and I thought we got a good look (at the end). You’d like to be closer, but if you’d told us with three seconds left we were going to get a clean look, we’d take that. I thought it was in. It just needed a little boost.”

Friday’s defeat was the latest in a growing list of frustrating losses for the Wildcats (9-9, 2-7 BNC). In the span of 11 days, Alpena has lost three games by a combined four points.

For at least a few minutes, it seemed like Alpena would end up on the other side of that coin.

After Kelley Stark missed a three-point attempt with time winding down in regulation, the rebound kicked out to Duncan, who drilled the game-tying shot from the right wing. The shot was briefly scored as a three-pointer with no time on the clock, but a discussion between the officials awarded Duncan a two-point field goal and put two seconds back on the clock.

Still, it gave the Wildcats a chance for a victory after they were routed by 20 in Cadillac in January.

“That was awesome. Jadon stepped up and shot the ball with great confidence,” Pintar said. “Jadon works really hard and that (shot) was definitely reflective of that. He’s put in the time and that’s a shot he works on.”

Duncan finished with 10 points, Cooper Bright had eight and Jordan Schultz led Alpena with 12, including three inside buckets in the last four minutes.

Alpena trailed 27-26 entering the fourth quarter and fell behind by four with less than six minutes to play, but kept on the attack. Schultz’s last two field goals tied the game–the last one made it 39-39 with 1:20 left–before Baker drove the lane for a go-ahead shot with 54 seconds left.

“I can’t believe how many times we’ve just been so close and we haven’t been able to get the key shot for us to go or a stop,” Pintar said. “I can’t say enough about our guys and how hard they work. They do everything you ask of them. They played, I thought, with fantastic effort tonight.”

Alpena fouled Baker with 38 seconds left but he missed both shots, paving the way for Duncan’s big shot to end regulation.

The Wildcats led 21-16 at halftime, attacking the basket and finding success from deep with four triples. Cadillac, which came into the contest having won three of its last four, ran into foul trouble and missed a number of easy shots.

That changed quickly in the second half. With Evan Borr and Logan Wilde working inside, the Vikings outscored Alpena 11-5 in the third quarter and rebounded nicely after missing their first six shots. Schultz briefly gave Alpena the lead, but Wilde canned a trey late to give Cadillac a one-point edge.

Wilde paced Cadillac with 12 points, Baker finished with 10 and Borr had nine.

Alpena will try to reverse its fortunes on Tuesday when it hosts Bay City Western in its home finale.

Cadillac’s JV team defeated Alpena 52-37. Mason Mumford led Alpena with 11 points and Andrew Fisher added 10.

The Vikings’ freshman team also defeated Alpena 51-38. Zachary Kunath paced Alpena with 10 points and Brady Niedzwiecki added seven.

——

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

CADILLAC (43): D. Johns 3 0-1 6; E. Borr 4 0-0 9; A. Abram 1 0-0 3; L. Wilde 5 0-0 12; L. Klotz 1 0-0 3; T. Baker 5 0-0 10.

ALPENA (42): A. Urlaub 0 0-2 0; R. Voltz 1 0-0 2; J. Schmanski 2 1-2 7; J. Duncan 4 0-0 10; K. Stark 1 0-0 3; C. Bright 2 3-6 8; J. Schultz 6 0-2 12.