News Photo by Jonny Zawacki Alpena’s Cooper Bright (33) scores on a layup during the second quarter of a Big North Conference boys basketball game against Cadillac on Tuesday at Alpena High School.

ALPENA — A pair of threes and a pair of rim-rattling dunks was not the way that the Alpena High boys basketball team envisioned ITS Senior Night game starting.

Cadillac opened with a three, got a quick steal that set up a Cole Jenema slam dunk.

Seconds later it was as if someone hit the rewind button as the Vikings stole a pass — but this time it was Evan Borr throwing down a left handed jam — then nailed a three on Cadillac’s next trip down the court to force Alpena coach John Pintar to call a timeout with his team trailing 10-0 less than three minutes into the game.

The Vikings (7-6, 4-5) added two more unanswered baskets out of the timeout and opened the game scoring the first 14 points.

They controlled the first half and didn’t look back as Alpena (3-9, 1-7 BNC) dropped its home finale by a score of 56-37 on Tuesday.

“You couldn’t draw up a worse start for us or a better start for them. They hit threes, get dunks off of turnovers, they had a lot of momentum right away and they were quicker out of the gate,” Pintar said. “We settled in after that and played better, but the first half in the last couple of games have been really bad for us. We’ve been a two-quarter team unfortunately. We come out flat and play better in the second half, pick up the pace, play harder and do the things we need to. It’s in us, but we have to be more consistent and unfortunately right now at the end of the year we’re not doing the things we need to and we’re regressing in some areas.”

There wasn’t much that went right for the Wildcats and it was far from their best showing of the season.

Alpena struggled to rebound and the Vikings made them pay with the extra opportunities. They maintained a double digit lead through the first half and held a comfortable 28-15 lead at the break.

“We were just absolutely terrible rebounding in the first half. We didn’t box out and rebound, they got two, three, four chances multiple times and you can’t give a good shooting team that many chances or you’re gonna struggle and get beat like we did tonight,” Pintar said.

Cadillac began the second half similar to how it started the game, without the flashy dunks.

The Vikings hit a pair of threes to begin the third quarter and forced another quick Wildcats timeout.

The timeout didn’t slow the Vikings’ momentum as they continued to add to their lead, burying four triples and took a commanding 50-22 lead into the final quarter.

The Vikings were led by Borr who finished the game with 15 points and Jaden Montague, who had 14.

Despite its best stretch of the night to begin the fourth, Alpena’s 12 consecutive points to begin the quarter wasn’t nearly enough to put the Wildcats in any kind of position to pull off a miracle comeback.

Cooper Bright led all scorers pouring in 20 points on the night. 

The Wildcats will try to regroup in a hurry as they travel to Ogemaw Wednesday in search of better results.

“When we played better and found success it was because of our ability to get a stop and rebound, run and get some offense,” Pintar said. “For whatever reason we’re just not executing. We need to keep pushing and get back at it again tomorrow night and do better.”

Cadillac’s JV team topped Alpena 44-32.

Brady Niedzwiecki led Alpena with eight points and Devin LaMay had six.

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

CADILLAC (56): C. Hess, 1 0-0 2; A. Gurden, 0 1-2 1; E. Borr, 5 1-2 15; A. Abram, 1 0-0 2; B. McLaurin, 4 0-2 9; C. Jenema, 3 2-2 8; C. Harsh, 1 1-2 3; J. Montague, 5 2-3 14; B. Bengelink, 1 0-0 2.

ALPENA (37): L. Young, 2 2-3 6; L. Tucker, 0 1-2 1; M. Mumford, 1 2-3 4; A. Prue, 1 0-0 2; C. Bright, 7 5-6 20; K. Hahn, 1 0-0 2.