On Wednesday night, the Kalkaska Freshman boys basketball team played their home opener against the Vikings from Graying. Five days ago, the Blazers were the visiting team facing Grayling in just the second game of the shortened 2020/2021 basketball season, and in that game, the Blazers struggled from the stripe and in the paint and left with a 34-44 loss. On Wednesday, they wanted to turn the tables on their M72 rival.

Scoring didn’t come easy for either team in the first quarter, but Kalkaska took a 6-2 lead into the second period thanks to a great driving shot by Jayden Mielke and a big three by guard Gavin Guggemos. The second quarter involved significantly more scoring by both teams, but Grayling took a one point lead into half-time by outscoring Kalkaska 15-10 including a last second hoop on a steal right before the half.

But tonight belonged to the Blazers, and they came out at half-time playing tremendous defense, holding Grayling to zero third quarter points. Even though Kalkaska only scored two points, they carried that tough defense into the fourth quarter and held Grayling to just seven second half points in total. The Blazers' 18, 4th-quarter points, was a season high for the Freshman team.

Ethan Schaub scored 8 of his team-leading 9 points in the second half. Adam Williams chipped in with 8 more points which included 4 of 6 from the charity stripe. Gavin Guggemos also had 8 and led the team with 10 rebounds, while Schaub snagged 9. Tommy Olds led the team with assists and Jayden Mielke led the team in steals.

It was a great team effort that secured the win. Isaac Jolly played tremendous defense down the stretch, Evan Hardy’s and-one drive to the hoop was a huge boost to the team, and Andrew Shetler had a couple of key boards in the Blazers’ victory. Ryan Perry, Tyler Hawley, and Chase Banko all took turns guarding one of Grayling’s main weapons and the result of the team effort was a solid 36-24 victory.

The Blazers have a few days without games and will use the chance to get better before next week’s contests.