Ogemaw Heights celebrates its first district basketball title since 1997 with its win over Standish-Sterling on Friday.
Brent Baker
Ogemaw's Alex Rose (42) and Alex Jennings make life difficult for SSC's Ashton Gulvas under the basket during Friday's contest.

HOUGHTON LAKE - Feb. 29, 2008 - The Ogemaw Heights boys basketball team isn't ready for its season to end.

The Falcons, playing like a team on a mission since the start of district tournament play, overcame a spirited effort from Standish-Sterling on Friday to eliminate the Panthers 71-49 and claim their first district championship since 1997.

"This is special," said Ogemaw coach Jon VanOosten. "The kids have fought for this for so long. We had some bad luck last year with Matt (Faiman), and we didn't get a chance to play for the championship. Tonight we were very concerned because Standish is such a good team and we needed to play well if we wanted to get it done."

Last year, of course, the Falcons had to play their district opener without Faiman, who had to sit the game out after drawing two technical fouls in their final regular season game -- both for hanging on the rim, and both calls widely disputed.

The Falcons lost to Gladwin while SSC went on to win the district title and was looking to repeat.

"Last year we had the district at home, and we had no major injuries (all season)," said SSC coach Tom Murray. "And they had that bad break at the end of the year.

"Losing Ashton Gulvas for half the year disrupted things, so I don't think we finished as strong as we might have.

"But give Ogemaw credit. They're an excellent team; they have kids with experience and Jon's done a nice job with them. They've had a great year."

SSC was up to the task for much of the game, but the Falcons used two dominant stretches to break open what had been a close contest for most of the first half.

Ogemaw finished the second quarter with a 17-6 run over the final five minutes to take a 40-28 lead as Michael Noffsinger was at his disruptive best, forcing a couple of turnovers and scoring seven of his nine points in that stretch, including a 3-pointer that bounced high off the rim before dropping through.

The Panthers cut the Ogemaw lead to eight points on several occasions in the third quarter, and Cole Walderzak's free throw to lead off the fourth quarter had SSC within 51-42.

"We couldn't break it open for the longest time," VanOosten said. "I kept looking at the clock and it never seemed to be moving."

Rick Dodridge's 3-pointer pushed the lead back to double digits, and Pete VanOosten, who finished with a game-high 29, scored nine of the Falcons' next 11 points as the Ogemaw lead ballooned to 20.

"When Rick hit that '3' I knew we could do it from there," said the younger VanOosten. "We played with a lot of passion tonight. We know this is our last go-around and we don't want it to end.

"This is our second main goal (the NEMC title being the first) we've accomplished. It's a great feeling."

Kyle Dantzer, who was also part of the Ogemaw soccer team's district title-winning effort, enjoyed his second such celebration of the school year.

"The soccer district was something no one expected," Dantzer said. "We kind of came out of nowhere and kept coming from behind.

"This is special because we've put so much work into it. I've been with these guys for 10 years. We're playing with a sense of urgency, and we're moving the ball so well, always making the extra passes. It's great."

SSC led through most of the first quarter as Austin Collier opened the game with two free throws and a 3-pointer to lift the Panthers to a quick 5-0 lead.

But Collier also picked up two fouls in the quarter and his third before halftime, hampering the Panthers' efforts to repeat last year's title-winning effort.

"Foul trouble hurt us bad," Murray said. "I don't know what those calls on Austin were. It was kind of a mystery. With he and Adam (Gulvas) in trouble all night, it sure didn't help."

The Panthers also went cold from the floor when they could least afford it.

"I don't know how many layups we missed in the third quarter," he said. "We needed to convert those. We executed well and got the good shot, our screen cuts were good, but the finishes weren't there.

"I can't fault the effort, though. The kids played hard, but Ogemaw is a good, tough team."

Ashton Gulvas led the Panthers (13-8) with 13 points, with Collier adding nine

The Falcons (19-4), who also got 14 points from Dodridge nine from Noffsinger and eight by Dantzer, are off to Petoskey on Monday to take on Menominee (19-3), which won its district with a 59-49 victory over Escanaba on Friday. Ogemaw enters that game playing its best sustained stretch of basketball this season.

"It kind of caught me by surprise," Jon VanOosten said of his team's elevated play. "But this group always seems to step up when it counts. They put their noses to the grindstone and get it done.

"We'll try to do that again on Monday."

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Menominee 59, Escanaba 49 (Escanaba Daily Press)