Pete VanOosten scored a career-high 34 points and missed just one first-half shot to lead Ogemaw past Tawas on Friday.
Tawas Area's Thomas Pinkerton applies some defensive pressure to the Falcons' Kyle Dantzer.
Brent Baker
Ogemaw's Michael Noffsinger passes off to a teammate during Friday's victory at Tawas.

TAWAS AREA - Feb. 8, 2008 - No one was really sure quite they saw Friday night at Tawas Area, including the coaches of the two basketball teams involved.

That's because no one would have predicted Ogemaw Heights' 82-45 start-to-finish domination of the Braves in a game crucial to both team's North East Michigan Conference title chances.

"I really don't know what to say," said Falcon coach Jon VanOosten of his victorious squad. "Pregame I thought we might be in trouble, but the kids put that to rest in a hurry. I didn't see this coming, but that's high school kids for you."

Falcon followers had reason to be nervous after Ogemaw dropped a 61-57 decision to Pinconning at home three days earlier. These same Braves gave the Falcons all they could handle on their home court in early January in a game Ogemaw won 59-53. Winning at Tawas seemed a more daunting task.

"I really don't know what to tell you," said Tawas coach Todd Kaems. "We didn't defend or rebound well, we turned the ball over and didn't make our shots.

"Heck we didn't even get that many shots to take."

Pete VanOosten poured in a career-high 34 points for the Falcons and got his team rolling by scoring the last six points of an early 8-0 run that made it 10-2. VanOosten finished the quarter with 13 points and the Falcons held a 21-9 lead that would only get larger.

The Falcons opened the second quarter with another 9-2 run as Alex Jennings and Rick Dodridge each hit a pair of free throws and VanOosten drilled his second 3-pointer of the night and another basket to make it 30-11. By the time Kevin O'Neil finished off the half with consecutive baskets, Ogemaw held a 41-16 lead, VanOosten had 18 points after missing just one shot and the Falcons as a team were outshooting Tawas 52-31 percent from the floor.

"Tawas didn't shoot the way they were capable of," Jon VanOosten said. "That certainly helped us."

Another thing that helped the Falcons was the absence for Tawas of Henri Ikonen, who is recovering from a broken collar bone but was in uniform -- though he didn't play -- Friday. Ikonen had shadowed VanOosten through the teams' first meeting, but this time the Falcon sharpshooter didn't have to work nearly so hard to get the ball in position to score.

VanOosten scored the rest of his 16 points in the third quarter, including at two-handed dunk that matched his previous career-high of 30.

The Falcons also regained their outside shooting touch, drilling five 3-pointers, including three by Dodridge, after coming up empty against Pinny. Dodridge was the only other double-figure scorer with 19. Jesse Siwek and D.J. Decker each scored nine to place Tawas.

The victory kept Ogemaw (13-3, 7-2 NEMC) tied with Standish-Sterling and Pinconning (both 7-2 after winning Friday) atop the league. Tawas (9-5, 5-4) is still mathematically alive but now has no realistic shot at the league title. It was the worst loss for the Braves since a 78-31 defeat at John Glenn in December, 2005.