Cheboygan boys show positive signs, but fall to Ogemaw Heights in opener

CHEBOYGAN – Jason Friday knows most of his players lack significant varsity game experience at the moment.

And when you have players who lack varsity game experience, mistakes are bound to happen.

For the third-year Cheboygan boys basketball coach, he saw both the good and the bad from his team in a season-opening 64-38 home loss to Ogemaw Heights on Tuesday night.

The Chiefs (0-1) got off to a promising start as they built a 9-6 first-quarter lead after junior guard Kaleb Goodrich scored a tough basket. However, the much more experienced Falcons – led by stellar senior guard Hudson Hodgins – closed the quarter on a 10-3 run and took a 16-12 lead into the second.

The second quarter was more of a struggle for the Chiefs, who turned the ball over several times to the Falcons, who exploded with a 13-0 run and took a commanding 34-17 lead. The Chiefs did cut the deficit to 13, but the Falcons used a strong finish to the half to take a 40-23 advantage into the break.

“We have a pretty smart group of kids, and I thought we did a pretty good job offensively,” said Friday. “We could’ve hit a few more (3-pointers). We made three threes. In today’s game, you better be making seven or eight. You look at the score and we lost by 26, but I really didn’t think we played that bad. Physically, they’re (Ogemaw) much stronger than us physically – and they got a stud. Hudson Hodgins is a tremendous basketball player.

“We were shaking hands in the line after the game and I said, ‘It’s been fun watching you for the past few years, but I’m going to admit, I’m glad I don’t get to see you anymore,’ because he’s just that good.”

Hodgins scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the opening half to fuel the Falcons, who increased their lead to 56-34 after three.

After capturing a six-point victory over Sanford Meridian in his team’s season opener on Monday night, Ogemaw coach Alex Jennings was thrilled to win on back-to-back nights.

“Great defensive intensity and getting in transition is what we do best,” said Jennings. “Our defense and turning it into offense is kind of how we thrive. I think our intensity helped us a lot, we were able to get our defensive trap and press going, and that leads to turnovers where we can get out in that open floor and score.”

Goodrich was the top offensive performer for the Chiefs, scoring a team-high 12 points, while juniors Ethan Gibbons and Brennen Thater each tallied five.

In the end, surrendering a couple Ogemaw runs came back to haunt the Chiefs.

At the same time, however, Friday has confidence his team will be able to correct things quickly.

“They (Ogemaw) were leaking two and three guys whenever we would shoot it, and we tried to send some guys back, and they would just leak guys, they’d get some quick layups, and they’ve got some kids that can really run,” Friday said. “They just went on those two big runs and it really hurt us, but I will say we had some pretty positive efforts in there.

“Ethan Gibbons came in and did some really good things. He made a sweet pass on a 2-on-1. I thought Kaleb Goodrich played well. Just a really smart player, and we’ve got one senior.

“We’re going to get nothing but better.”

The Chiefs received four points from Caden Gardner and three points apiece from Connor Gibbons, Daniel Hudson and Dylan Balazovic. Robert Godfrey scored two and Patrick Watson added one to round out Cheboygan.

“I thought Caden (Gardner) came in at the beginning and was a little hesitant, but Caden came in and played a great second half,” Friday said. “Caden’s tough, he’s got some quickness. Dylan Balazovic doesn’t score a lot of points, but he works so hard and he’s so smart and he communicates so well. I’m really happy he’s on this team because he does a great job.”

For the Falcons, senior Quinn Courtemanche finished with 14 points and drilled a pair of treys, while Mike Stahl netted eight and Ryland McDaniels scored six.

“Last night (in the win over Sanford Meridian) we only had five scorers, so it was good to see that scoring tonight even it out,” Jennings said. “It’s definitely good to get out to a 2-0 start, our schedule starts to pick up with a lot of the Bay City schools, so it’s good to keep the confidence going.”

Cheboygan will look to earn its first win of the season when it travels to face East Jordan on Thursday night.

“I want to see us be more physical as far as rebounding the basketball,” Friday said. “We talked in the locker room after the game about those 50-50 balls where sometimes people get hands on them and it’s sort of bouncing around. We say it’s 50-50, but it was almost like 80-20 that Ogemaw would end up with those balls, so we just have to go after it a little bit more.”

In the junior varsity game, Cheboygan suffered a 48-42 loss to Ogemaw.

For the JV Chiefs, Jack Ekdahl led with 16 points, while Owen Kimbrell scored seven. Luke Hoskins and Carson Kiefer each tallied four, Andrew Kiefer and Luke Lafrinere registered three apiece, Ethan Goulet and Sam Brown both scored two, and Jacob Gofourth chipped in with one.

This article originally appeared on Cheboygan Daily Tribune: Cheboygan boys hoops show positive signs, but fall to Ogemaw Heights