Posen outguns Hurons as home teams win series

by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor

In the boys? basketball battles between Rogers City and Posen, history will show that the home team won the games during the 2007-08 season. In front of a packed house Tuesday, Posen (10-4) defended its home court with an 83-67 victory over Rogers City (6-7) to improve their season-best winning streak to seven. At the end of the night, Viking head coach Steve Hentkowski was using the word ?best? quite a bit.

Senior center Nick LaTulip had a season-best 37 points. As a team, Posen had a season-low eight turnovers. Hentkowski also believes this is the best he has seen the offense play. ?We played patient as a group tonight,? said Hentkowski. ?We didn?t try to rush things.?

?We were full strength for the entire game, and we definitely put together four good quarters tonight. LaTulip was a presence inside. They didn?t have a good answer for it.? Rogers City senior guard Bret Karsten, coming off a bout with the flu last week, poured in several highlight-reel shots to end the contest with a team-best 31, but Huron coach Karl Grambau said his squad lost the rebounding battle on the offensive side. ?They probably had 25 points on put backs,? said Grambau. ?Against a good team, you can?t give them that many second and third shots.? It didn?t help that senior Scott Kowalewsky picked up his third foul at the six-minute mark of the second quarter. The Hurons will look to rebound Friday at home against Cheboygan, while Posen hosts Hale Friday night. Hale is the only school to defeat the Vikes in the North Star League.

THE HURONS and Vikings were sharing the lead in the first half of the first quarter, and the game was shaping up to be another fight to the finish. Posen had a 9-6 lead, but Kowalewsky converted on a three-point play to tie it at nine. That was followed by a put back by LaTulip. Junior Scott Grulke, who was the shooting hero in the first game back in December, bombed a three, to put the Hurons on top by one, 12-11. An inside play by LaTulip, and two free throws from senior Jordan Hincka, put the Vikings up by three again. Karsten hit one out of two at the free throw line to cut it to two, 15-13, before Rogers City got stuck on unlucky number ?13.?

Posen proceeded to go on a 12-0 run to end the first quarter and for more than half of the second quarter. Karsten?s flip up shot with 3:48 ended the drought, but Posen had a 12-point lead. The teams would go toe-to-toe the rest of the way. Anytime Posen would pad their lead to 12 or more, the Hurons would answer and get it down to nine, but could get no closer. A pass from Hincka to LaTulip, who had a nice post move in the closing seconds of the first half, gave Posen a 13 point lead, 39-26. The only players to score in the first half were seniors. That trend would continue in the second half as Posen started a 62 percent shooting quarter with a shot from Hincka, which gave the Vikings their biggest lead of the night at 15, 41-26.

THE HURONS would fire back with Kowalewsky making a shot over LaTulip, Karsten getting an assist on a field goal by Kowalewsky, and then making one of several circus shots as part of a 6-0 run. That got the lead back to nine in a hurry. When senior Paul Kroll cut to the basket to put Posen up by 13, the Hurons answered with four straight. With a few minutes left in the third, Grambau went with the pressure defense, but the Vikings were able to break the press and get a three from senior Nathan Strzelecki. In the fourth, a Hincka steal and lay up put Posen up by 16, but RC cranked up the running game, until Hentkowski called time out. A pair of free throws by Karsten trimmed the lead to 10, before LaTulip made another terrific post move to get the lead back to a dozen again, and then on the other side of the floor he blocked a shot as part of a dominating effort on both sides of the floor. Hincka finished with 29 points in the game, while Kroll had 14. Kowalewsky finished with 12.

?I DIDN?T EXPECT to score 83 against Rogers City,? said Hentkowski. ?Usually it?s a real defensive, drag out type of game. We are starting to hit our stride. I believe when we are healthy, we are very difficult to beat.? Grambau said, ?It really hurt us when we got into a little foul trouble with Kowalewsky. That really hurt us. It

opened the door for LaTulip. I thought we played a pretty good second half.? ?This is a good one to play before the tournament. We have to rebound, and we can?t go into that scoring drought. I think we have a good basketball team. I think we both can have some success in the district tournament.? Pairings have been announced for the district tournament to be played at the end of the month in Harbor Springs. The Hurons take on Alcona February 25 at 6 p.m. The winner will take on Hale February 27. Posen plays the winner of the Atlanta v. Hillman game, February 27 at 7:30 p.m. The tournament will be played in Hillman.

THE ROGERS CITY JV improved their overall record to 12-1 with a 74-44 win over Posen. The Hurons had four players in double figures. Jordan Bellmore had 18, while Erik Meharg tossed in 16. Chris Vogelheim and Joe Kasubowski both added 10 apiece. Justin LaPointe led Posen with 20. The Huron varsity lost to Sault Ste. Marie, 46-37, last Thursday. Justin Idalski had 18 points, but the JV won an exciting contest. With seven seconds left in overtime and needing to go the full length of the court, the Hurons broke the Soo press. Pat Quaine took a long pass from Vogelheim and hit Bellmore in stride at the free throw line. Bellmore?s 15-foot shot bounced softly on the rim four times before dropping in as the horn sounded, giving the Hurons the victory. The final score was 63-61. Evan Wagner put in 22 points. With a couple of cancellations, Posen had been off for 10 days before Tuesday?s action.

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