By Greg Gielczyk
LocalSportsJournal.com
MANISTEE — Montague overcame a scoreless first quarter and ended a three-game losing streak Tuesday night with a tough 32-27 win over Manistee.
The game, a West Michigan Conference Lakes Division matchup, was played in the Mariners gym.
“It seemed like they were trying to slow the game down a little bit for us, playing zone and then walking the ball up the court and spreading us out,” said Wildcats coach Nick Thaler. “They did a good job of taking us out of our game a little bit. But, we took advantage of it and came away with the win, and that’s what matters.”
Manistee had a 4-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Wildcats came back to make it just a two-point game, 13-11, at the half when Owen Raeth went up between two defenders to knock down a 3-pointer.
The Wildcats couldn’t shake the Mariners in the second half, finishing the third period with a narrow 22-19 lead.
But the Wildcats bolted ahead 29-20 midway through the fourth quarter and never led by fewer than six the rest of the way.
“If we hold teams to 32 points the rest of the year and in the playoffs, I think we’ll be fairly happy with the outcomes,” Manistee coach Zach Bialik said. “Our shots just wouldn’t go in. We had some other things we wanted to do, but we haven’t strayed from our 2-3 (zone) the last few games. The defense was great, and really caused some confusion. But we couldn’t get it done on the offensive end.”
Kaden Kott finished with 11 points to lead the Mariners while Mason Gunnett contributed 10. Jacob Scharp and Gunnett had 10 rebounds apiece as the Mariners outrebounded the Wildcats 33-26 on the night.
Raeth and Isaiah Atchison scored eight apiece and Kellen Francis seven for the Wildcats (12-9, 5-7) who next play at Grant on Thursday.
Manistee dropped back below .500 at 10-11 on the season, 2-9 in the conference. The Mariners travel to Ludington Thursday night in another conference game.
