Full-court defense, getting to the foul line and passing the ball to the open man were the keys to a 63-45 victory for the Rogers City boys’ varsity basketball team over Cheboygan at home on Friday. “Defense won us this one. They trapped and played hard all four quarters,” said coach Jesse Streich. Devin Hilla scored the first basket of the contest and it was the only Huron hoop until Austin Brege stepped up and hit a 3-pointer with 4:50 left in the opening frame to make the score 7-5 in favor of Cheboygan.

Just 15 seconds later Josh Vogelheim hit a three of his own to give the Hurons the 8-7 advantage. With the score tied at nine the Hurons used an 8-2 run to take a six-point lead at the end of the quarter as Vogelheim had six points and Hilla added two. Cheboygan outscored the Hurons 10-4 to start the second quarter to tie the score at 21 with 2:05 remaining in the first half. A free throw by Hilla and a drive to the basket plus the foul by Vogelheim gave the Hurons a four-point edge until Cheboygan hit a basket with just three seconds left to make the halftime score 25-23.

The visiting Chiefs came out of halftime and outscored the Hurons 14-7 in the third quarter to take a 37-32 lead going into the final quarter. After falling behind by seven to start the fourth the Hurons came back to make the score 41-40 in favor of the Chiefs with six minutes remaining. The teams would battle back and forth until there was 3:45 remaining when Cheboygan hit a basket before Rogers City went on a 14-0 run to end the game and win their third straight.

“We got down seven at the start of the fourth quarter and they didn’t give up. They got down for a minute but used defense to get back in it. We shot a lot of free throws,” said coach Streich. The Hurons were 20-37 from the charity stripe in the game and 15-25 in the second half, 14-21 in the fourth quarter alone. Cheboygan was 2-5 at the line for the game and didn’t reach the charity stripe until the final two minutes of the third quarter, an attest to the good solid defense displayed by the Hurons.

“They kept their heads up and fought hard until the end. I am proud of them. They are stepping up and starting to come together and play as a team. They have bought into the defense and we are getting ready for March,” said coach Streich. Vogelheim led all scorers with 25 with nine in the first quarter and 12 in the fourth quarter. Coach Streich said it was the best game of Vogelheim’s career. Hilla had 19 points and Brege added 15. The only other Huron points came from Chase Grulke who had four in the second half.

The Hurons were at Onaway Wednesday (after press time) and will be at Rudyard tomorrow (Friday) before they host Hillman March 1 in their final regular season game.