By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
MANISTEE — Manistee started a little slow, but two big runs in each half powered the Mariners’ boys basketball team to a convincing 62-51 non-conference win over Traverse City Christian at home Friday night.
Coming off a two-week idle period for the holidays, the Mariners appeared slightly off through the first eight minutes.
Traverse City recovered from a 5-2 early deficit to knot the score up twice, 6-6 and 8-8 before actually slipping into a 11-10 lead barely a minute before the end of the quarter.
But the Mariners had the last word with Chaos Johnson rushing in for a layup that lifted them into a one-point advantage, 12-11, at the horn.
It was pretty much all Manistee after that, however, as the Mariners opened up a 16-point bulge, 27-11 with a stirring 15-0 run in the first three minutes of the second quarter.
Tramel Caviness triggered the spurt by hitting a 3-point bucket and scoring six points. Landin Sowa also knocked down a triple during that span.
“That first game back from break really scares the heck out of me, it really does,” Manistee coach Zach Bialik said. “Just because you have two weeks off and you don’t know how it’s going to play out. But, I thought they came with energy. I thought they played well. We stretched it to 16, 18 points there and got a little careless.
“Part of learning how to win comes with learning how to close out games, too. I want everybody to have fun, but you’ve got to get that ‘W’ in the column at the end of the day.”
Manistee led by 11 at the half.
The Mariners restored their 16-point lead, 36-20, at the 5:35 mark of the third, but the Sabres cut it in half, 43-35, to start the fourth period.
But the Mariners hit another hot streak in the fourth, outscoring the Sabres, 8-0 and roaring back into a 16-point lead, 51-35, with 5:11 left in the game.
Landin Sowa paced the Mariners with 13 points. He also had six rebounds and three assists. Kaden Kott contributed 11 points and two steals, while Caviness added 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots.
Reece Broderick scored 14 points to lead all scorers in the game for the Sabres (7-3) and Malachi Willis added 11.
Manistee improved to 6-4 with its second straight win. The Mariners will be idle now until next Thursday when they host West Michigan Conference Lakes Division rival Ludington.
