Pinny celebrates after holding off Ogemaw Heights Tuesday and moving into a first-place tie atop the NEMC.
The Falcon's Pete VanOosten, fouled here by Pinny's Andrew Holbrook, scored 29 points and had a perfect night at the free throw line.
Linda Eyer
Ogemaw's Rick Dodridge (44) pressures Pinconning's Lucas Foco during Tuesday's contest.

PINCONNING - Feb. 5, 2008 - Not many saw this coming at the beginning of the season, least of all Pinconning coach Tim Floyd.

The Spartans, who graduated their top two players from a season ago, didn't figure to be mix with Ogemaw Heights, Tawas Area and Standish-Sterling for the NEMC title.

But after Tuesday's 63-60 victory over Ogemaw, the Spartans completed a sweep of the other three contenders since Jan. 18 -- in addition to an overtime win over John Glenn and a non-conference victory over Bay City Central -- and vaulted into a first place tie with the Falcons and Spartans. All three have 6-2 NEMC marks, with Tawas, which Pinny knocked off on Saturday, a game back at 5-3.

"Going in I thought we might go 11-9 without (Willie) Pickvet and (Andrew) Marut," said Pinconning coach Tim Floyd. "I knew we had some good kids coming back, but we've had some nice surprises too. I knew Casey Pashak and Lucas Foco would contribute, but I didn't know they'd be as good as they have been."

Both played key roles in Tuesday's wire-to-wire white-knuckler, but it was a couple of the returning players that pushed Pinny over the edge. Brandon Delgado and Josh Federspiel each scored 18 points to lead Pinny, with Delgado's all coming from beyond the 3-point arc. Delgado hit four in quick succession in the second quarter as the Spartans built as much as an 11-point lead, but the Falcons, who entered the game leading the league, fought back to take a 34-32 halftime lead.

"Pinny shot the ball much better than the first time we played," said Falcon coach Jon VanOosten. "Especially Delgado. And guys like Foco and Pashak have really improved.

"I thought we were a little rusty at the start and expended a lot of energy getting back in the game. But at the end, we just didn't execute. We pushed some things we shouldn't have down the stretch."

Neither team led by more than four in the second half of the intense, physical contest despite not hitting a single 3-point shot in the game, while Pinny drained eight. Pete VanOosten still scored 29 points, including a perfect 13-of-13 at the free throw line, but couldn't get a potentially game-tying trey to go down at game's end.

"We had a couple of chances," Jon VanOosten said. "We didn't take advantage of them, and we had a couple of bounces go Pinny's way. It doesn't take much to make a difference in these games.

"It gets tough this time of year because everyone knows everyone else so well. We kind of struggled offensively, but I'm not sure yet how much of that was their defense and how much was our execution. But we have some things we need to work on, especially in our half-court offense."

Pinny has managed to win eight straight despite not having a single player average in double figures; instead, the balanced Spartans have six players averaging between six and nine points a contest.

"They have a lot of ways to hurt you," VanOosten said. "They've really gotten to be a handful."

Pashak finished with nine points, Foco had eight and Andrew Holbrook scored seven for the Spartans (11-2, 6-2).

Michael Noffsinger and Kyle Dantzer each scored nine for Ogemaw (12-3, 6-2).

With four games yet to play on the NEMC slate, the potential still exists for the top four teams to finish deadlocked. Key games include both Ogemaw and Standish-Sterling visiting Tawas and Pinny traveling to SSC on the last day of the regular season.

"We're trying to take it one at a time," Floyd said. "Our ultimate goal is to have that last game at Standish mean something. But if we don't play well at Glenn or against Oscoda or Whittemore, it won't matter much."

"We're going to have a tough time at Tawas," VanOosten said. "But it'll be tough (for all the road teams) these last few games. We just need to hold serve and take care of our own problems."