Oscoda's Ryan Mahalak and Hale's Robert Amicone scramble after a loose ball late in Tuesday's 53-50 Oscoda victory.
Eric Turland banks in a fourth-quarter offensive rebound during Hale's 53-50 loss at Oscoda.
Brent Baker
Barak Henderson provided a tall order for the Eagles to shoot over during Tuesday's contest.

OSCODA - Jan. 30, 2007 - Barak Henderson scored four of his 20 points in the final two minutes and Kevin Mallak and Ryan Mahalak added key baskets as Oscoda rallied from a five-point deficit to hand Hale a 53-50 non-conference defeat.

The Eagles had their chances to build on the lead, and then to recover it, in the final minutes, but missed five free throws and committed three turnovers after playing an otherwise strong second half.

Oscoda took a 25-19 halftime lead, but Hale opened the third quarter with a 13-2 run and while the game remained close and hotly contested, the Eagles didn't give up the lead until Henderson scored off a feed from Adam Dettmer with one minute to go.

"That was a great game, and with the two crowds going at it the way they did I think it fired both teams up," said Oscoda coach Scott Lueck. "I give Hale a lot of credit; they played hard.

"They surprised us a bit with their trap in the first half, and I don't think we ever really got that fixed. But we played some good defense; teams haven't been shooting well against us."

The Eagles, who have shot 50 percent or better in most of their games, were held to 33 percent for the game. Oscoda also out-rebounded the Eagles 40-23 and forced 21 turnovers.

"The last few minutes were rough," said Hale coach Rich Reilly. "But it wasn't just that. We missed six layups in the first half, the turnovers hurt us, missed free throws hurt us all game, not just the last minute.

"Even with all that we had things going our way, and I did something that ended up being a mistake. With (starting point guard) Robert Amicone on the bench (with four fouls) we decided to spread it out and take time off the clock. Hindsight is 20-20, but we should have kept attacking, because it didn't work.

"It was a team loss, not just the plays down the stretch. Hopefully we'll learn from it; the bright side is it may have cost us some pride, but not a (North Star League) game."

Henderson finished with 20 points, 15 rebounds and plenty of altered shots in the middle, while Jason Jimenez had nine points and 14 rebounds and Adam Dettmer had 10 points and five steals.

"Jason's defensive help in the first half was outstanding," Lueck said. Jimenez also hit a triple that cut Hale's five-point lead to two with just over two minutes to play.

Ryan Miller led Hale (7-4) with 14 points, Eric Turland added 11 and Zach Putnam had eight.

Oscoda (6-6) plays at Alcona on Friday, while Hale faces a key league contest at Mio.