Hurons, Tigers to play for district championship Friday
Rogers City survives, Posen and Onaway eliminated
Three Presque Isle County boys’ basketball teams were alive in the state playoffs before Wednesday’s night’s (Feb. 26) district semifinal doubleheader in Hillman.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Rogers City Hurons were the last team still going and will try to bring the district trophy home Friday (Feb. 28) with a win over host Hillman. The tipoff of the game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
Rogers City staved off an upset by Onaway head coach Eddy Szymoniak’s young Cardinals, 47-40.
With Onaway on top, 24-21, in the middle of the third, the Hurons went on a 17-1 run late in the third quarter and well into the fourth for a 38-25 lead.
The Cardinals came charging back on the back of senior Mason Beebe, who scored 10 of his game-high 20 after that run, to get his team within five points, 45-40, but time ran out on Onaway and Rogers City was able to hang on.
Rogers City’s Jacob Catalano had five 3-pointers and finished with 18, while Jase Wenzel had 16; however, most of his contributions came during that key run.
Beebe ends up with 960 points in his career to come up short of the coveted 1,000-point plateau.
Hillman defeats Posen in semifinal
Posen could not keep pace with Hillman in the second semifinal that ended in a score of 64-57.
The Vikings were down by nearly 20 in the closing minutes and took a run at the Tigers, getting it all the way down to a seven-point deficit with 27.7 seconds left.
Hillman made a couple of free throws and John Ennest made a field goal for the final Vikings’ score. Like Onaway, time had run out on the game and Posen’s season.
Posen’s seniors were
There will be more details of all the semifinal games in next week’s edition including comments from the coaches.
Tickets for the district championship must be purchased through the Michigan High School Athletic Association’s approved ticket seller, GoFan. The link to purchase tickets is https://gofan.co/event/3257291
