The Freshman boys basketball team played host to the Boyne City Ramblers on Tuesday night, in what turned out to be an exciting back-and-forth contest between two solid teams. Boyne City ran the floor hard with strong defense and an aggressive driving offense, while Kalkaska played another solid game, controlled the glass and frequently found themselves at the charity stripe.

The game started out looking like a laugher. After both teams put up a couple of quick baskets, the Ramblers took advantage of several Blazer turnovers and jumped out to an 11-2 advantage forcing coach Guggemos to burn an early time out. But the Blazers are a strong team and have some depth off the bench, and they fought back with an 11-0 run of their own taking a 13-11 lead into the the second quarter. The second quarter continued the back-and-forth theme and at halftime the Ramblers were up by just two.

As the second half began, it felt like a repeat of the first quarter where the Boyne City defense seemed to overwhelm the Kalkaska offense and it didn’t take long before the Blazers found themselves down by 12, and scrambling to just to cut the lead to ten by the end of the third.

But this is a strong Blazer team that doesn’t quit fighting, and just like they did in the first half, Kalkaska came storming back. Jayden Mielke attacked the basket all night, the whole team worked to crash and control the boards, and with 17 seconds left to play, Kalkaska was down by two after Gavin Guggemos made a clutch free-throw on the front end of a one-and-one.

Boyne City grabbed a rebound after the second free throw bounced around the rim, but the Blazers stole the inbounds pass and had three great looks at the hoop, but couldn’t get the ball to fall through! A foul and two made free throws later, and the Blazers lost 52-48 in what was a solid performance and an exciting game before an excellent home crowd.

Jayden Mielke had an all-around fantastic game and led all scorers with 21 points on 8/14 shooting from the floor and 4/7 from the stripe. Tommy Olds contributed with 5 assists and Ethan Schaub and Isaac Jolly led the team in rebounds with 8 and 7 collectively; the Blazers out-rebounded the Ramblers 43-34.

The boys will have a couple of days of practice before their next home game against St. Francis on Friday night. You don’t want to miss the exciting brand of ball that the Freshman are playing, so come out Friday and cheer on the boys!