The Falcons' Pete VanOosten scores over SSC's ADam Gulvas in the first half of Thursday's NEMC opener.
Ogemaw survived a rough-and-tumble 50-40 decision that was filled with scraps like that above between Mark Lorence of SSC and Kyle Dantzer of the Falcons.
Brent Baker
Gio Roberto, who spent last season in the front row of the O-Zone while recovering from a knee injury, returned to the court in fine form in the Falcons' opener with 13 points.

OGEMAW HEIGHTS - Dec. 6, 2007 - Ogemaw Heights and Standish-Sterling have seen plenty of one another in key situations over the past couple of years. The current NEMC co-champions in both football and boys basketball met in Thursday's boys hoops opener that tilted more toward the football end of things.

A very physical back-and-forth game finally turned in the final minutes of the fourth quarter as Ogemaw pulled away to take a 50-40 victory and gain a very early edge in the NEMC title chase.

"That's the way these two teams always play," said Falcon coach Jon VanOosten. "I figured it would be a physical, low-scoring game and that's exactly what we got.

"I wasn't real happy opening our season with this game; it would have been nice to have had a non-conference game first. But now (with a win), I like it."

The Falcons took the lead for good late in the third quarter on Kyle Dantzer's tip-in that made it 33-32. With two minutes to play, Jason Kandal scored off Ashton Gulvas's assist to make it 41-38, but the Falcons hit 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch to just 2-of-8 by the Panthers to pull away.

"Actually, I'm just tickled with how we played," said SSC coach Tom Murray, who was anything but happy with the Panthers' season-opening win over Houghton Lake three days earlier. "It was ragged, but both teams were competing, and that's what I liked. We competed so much better than we did the other day.

"Between Adam Gulvas having just practiced once, Ashton being gimpy, then getting Austin (Collier) in foul trouble, it was like a bad dream. I think when we get in better basketball shape we'll make those free throws, but give Ogemaw credit. Jon does a great job."

The Falcons got the kind of performance they expect out of Pete VanOosten -- 16 points, including five in the fourth quarter -- but got a big pick-up from Gio Roberto, who missed all of last season with a knee injury. Roberto looked back on his game, drilling a pair of triples, hitting 3-of-4 fourth quarter free throws and finishing with 13 points.

SSC battled to a 14-12 lead after one quarter, but Roberto's trey with 12 seconds left in the half and a buzzer-beating layup by VanOosten helped Ogemaw to a 27-22 lead.

The lead vanished quickly as Collier opened the second half with a trey, then leaned on Kevin Goretcki, who scored eight points in the quarter after Collier picked up his third foul. Goretcki closed the third quarter with a basket that kept the Panthers within one at 35-34, but that was as close as they would get.

Goretcki finished with a team-high 15 points, with Ashton Gulvas adding nine.

The Falcons finished 15-of-19 at the free throw line to SSC's 6-of-18.

"We made some important free throws when we had to," VanOosten said. "But you know that both these teams are going to be a lot better the next time we play."

SSC (1-1, 0-1 NEMC) heads to Bay City Western on Monday, while the Falcons (1-0, 1-0) face a tough league road test at Pinconning on Thursday, Dec. 13.