Bearcats fall in finals

Ubly seemed to have the game in hand for most of the first three quarters, as they had a 38-28 advantage with 1:34 remaining in the quarter. Caro used a 4-0 run in the final 98 seconds to pull within six.

Fifty seconds into the fourth, the Tigers pulled within three (38-35), before taking the 43-42 lead with 3:50 left in the game. They would trade leads, but Caro kept their foot on the pedal and never let up, holding on to and building on their advantage to pull out the win.

TK led Ubly with 16 points and unofficially 8 boards giving him 35 points and 22 boards in the two tourney games. He was named to the All-Tournament team along with Mitch Cleary, who scored 10 points.

Ubly knocks off Yale in tournament action

Steven Weber
Eric Booms
Brandon Sorenson

Mitchell Cleary

TK

Justin Cleary

Dalton O'Connor

TK

Eric Booms

Steven Weber

Eric Booms

Mitch Cleary

TK

TK, Brandon Sorenson, Justin Cleary, Jordan Kaufman, Joel Leipprandt Jr., Dick Holdship & Joel Leipprandt Sr.

Sorenson

The Bearcats advanced to the finals of the Holiday Tournament by beating Yale 58-48. They will face the winner of Kingston vs. Caro in the finals on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

Ubly played without Jordan Kaufman who is out with an ankle injury. But that may have been a blessing in disguise, as a team that will count heavily on Kaufman throughout the season, was able to gain some confidence playing as a unit without him.

It took them awhile to get their bearings and get in a flow offensively, but once they did things went well. Kaufman isn't going to play every minute of every game this year, and the team took an important step in learning how to be successful when he is not in the game.
Without his offense, the Bearcats needed someone to step and pick up the offensive void. Tyler Kubacki did just that with 20 points and 14 rebounds. Kubacki was also 7-of-8 from the line, where he is 14-of-16 this season.

Leipprandt dominates Girls ower 10, Boys Power 10 has five five vying for the top spot

To keep feeding the beast in terms of basketball coverage, here is a look at the stat leaders for the nine area teams we cover as well as the Power 10, which give you an idea of who some of the best overall, well-rounded players are.
Obviously, things like rebounds, steals and assists would be other important stats to consider when trying to find an overall most well-rounded player. However those stats are rarely, if ever reported; usually only if someone has one really good game. So the categories we do use, are consistently reported and we think cover a variety of skill sets.

Girls Stat Leaders
Through Friday, Dec. 19*
Points per game (Minimum nine ppg)
G TP PPG
1. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 4 100 25
2. Sara Clancy, North Huron 3 53 17.7
3. Meaghan Fortsch, Caseville 5 82 16.4
4. Dani Gremel, USA 4 53 13.3
5. Jillian Williamson, USA 4 47 11.8
6. Stephanie Maxwell, EPBP 2 23 11.5
7. Bethany Grates, Caseville 5 54 10.8
8. Kristen Smaglinski, Port Hope 3 31 10.3
9. Jodie Pettit, North Huron 3 29 9.7
T9. Abby Knoblock 3 29 9.7

Free Throw percentage (Minimum nine attempts, 55 percent)
FM FA FT %
1. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 28 34 .823
2. Brittany Gruehn, USA 7 9 .778
3. Kayla Gust, Port Hope 10 13 .769
T3. Nicole Franzel, Ubly 10 13 .769
5. Sara Clancy, North Huron 19 25 .760
6. Estay Ruppal, USA 8 11 .727
7. Megan Heffner, North Huron 9 13 .692
8. Dani Gremel, USA 15 23 .652
9. Kristen Smaglinski, Port Hope 7 11 .636
10. Jodie Pettit, North Huron 11 19 .579

Three-pointers per game (Minimum one per game)
G 3’s 3’s pg
1. Dani Gremel, USA 4 6 1.5
2. Meaghan Fortsch, Caseville 5 7 1.4
3. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 4 5 1.3
4. Lyndsay White, Ubly 4 4 1.0
T4. Kayla Gust, Port Hope 3 3 1.0
T4. Shelby Pietruck, EPBP 2 2 1.0

Best Game (Most points scored in a game)
1. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 32 points vs. Cass City
2. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 29 points vs. USA
3. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 21 points vs. Reese
4. Sara Clancy, North Huron 20 points vs. Kingston
5. Meaghan Fortsch, Caseville 19 points vs. SAS
6. Meghan Fortsch, Caseville 18 points vs. Akron-Fairgrove
T6. Jillian Williamson, USA 18 points vs. Marlette
T6. Sara Clancy, North Huron 18 points vs. Caseville
T6. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 18 points vs. Vassar
10. Jillian Williamson, USA 17 points vs. Harbor Beach
*For all reported games (We've received no box scores from the Owen-Gage girls team).

Girls Power 10
PPG FT 3s BG TP LW
1. Alicia Leipprandt, Ubly 10 10 8 10,9,8,5 60 N/A
2. Meaghan Fortsch, Caseville 8 -- 9 6,5 28 N/A
3. Sara Clancy, North Huron 9 6 -- 7,5 27 N/A
4. Dani Gremel, USA 7 3 10 -- 20 N/A
5. Kayla Gust, Port Hope -- 8 7 -- 15 N/A
6. Jillian Williamson, USA 6 -- -- 5,1 12 N/A
7. Bethany Gruehn, USA -- 9 -- -- 9 N/A
8. Nicole Franzel, Ubly -- 8 -- -- 8 N/A
9. Shelby Pietruck, EPBP -- -- 7 -- 7 N/A
T9. Lyndsay White, Ubly -- -- 7 -- 7 N/A

Points for the Power 10 are awarded as following: 1st=10 pts., 2nd=9, 3rd=8, etc.

Boys Stat Leaders
Through Friday, Dec. 19*
Points per game (Minimum nine ppg)
G TP PPG
1. Sean Clancy, North Huron 3 59 19.7
2. John Iseler, North Huron 3 58 19.3
3. Scott Fletcher, USA 2 37 18.5
4. Jacob Murawske, Harbor Beach 2 34 17.0
T4. Nick Zaleski, Owen-Gage 2 34 17.0
6. Brent Reil, Owen-Gage 2 32 16.0
7. Devon Prich, Owen-Gage 2 31 15.5
8. Jordan Kaufman, Ubly 2 28 14.0
9. Brandon Smith, Port Hope 2 27 13.5
T9. Tyler Kubacki, Ubly 2 27 13.5

Free Throw percentage (Minimum seven attempts, 55 percent)
FM FA FT %
1. Tyler Kubacki, Ubly 7 8 .875
2. Eric Dhyse, North Huron 6 7 .857
3. Brent Reil, Owen-Gage 12 15 .800
4. Kevin Dubs, EPBP 9 12 .750
T4. Jacob Murawske, Harbor Beach 6 8 .750
6. Jordan Kaufman, Ubly 5 7 .714
T6. Brandon Sorenson, Ubly 5 7 .714
8. Dean Carr, Bad Axe 9 14 .643
9. Anthony Irvine, North Huron 7 12 .583

Three-pointers per game (Minimum one per game)
G 3’s 3’s pg
1. Devon Prich, Owen-Gage 2 9 4.5
2. Scott Fletcher, USA 2 7 3.5
3. Nick Wehner, Bad Axe 3 9 3.0
T3. Dustin Ostrander, Caseville 1 3 3.0
T3. Charlie Karafa, Caseville 1 3 3.0
6. Grant Gnagey, EPBP 3 7 2.3
T6. Luke Flannery, Bad Axe 3 7 2.3
8. Sean Clancy, North Huron 3 6 2.0
T8. Jacob Murawske, Harbor Beach 2 4 2.0
10. Eric Montreuil, Owen-Gage 2 3 1.5

Best Game (Most points scored in a game)
1. Devon Prich, Owen-Gage 29 points (nine triples) vs. Caseville
2. Sean Clancy, North Huron 25 points vs. Dryden
3. John Iseler, North Huron 24 points vs. Memphis
4. Brent Reil, Owen-Gage 22 points vs. CPS
5. Jacob Murawske, Harbor Beach 21 points vs. Cass City
T5. Scott Fletcher, USA 21 points vs. Ubly
T5. John Iseler, North Huron 21 points vs. Dryden
8. Sean Clancy, North Huron 20 points vs. Memphis
9. Luke Voelker, EPBP 19 points vs. Sandusky
10. Nick Zaleski, Owen-Gage 18 points vs. CPS
* For all reported scores.

Boys Power 10
PPG FT 3s BG TP LW
1. Sean Clancy, North Huron 10 -- 2 9,3 24 N/A
T1. Devon Prich, Owen-Gage 4 -- 10 10 24 N/A
3. John Iseler, North Huron 9 -- -- 8,6 23 N/A
T3. Scott Fletcher, USA 8 -- 9 6 23 N/A
5. Jacob Murawske, Harbor Beach 7 7 2 6 22 N/A
6. Brent Reil, Owen-Gage 5 8 -- 7 20 N/A
7. Tyler Kubacki, Ubly 2 10 -- -- 12 N/A
8. Eric Dhyse, North Huron -- 9 -- -- 9 N/A
9. Jordan Kaufman, Ubly 3 5 -- -- 8 N/A
T9. Nick Wehner, Bad Axe -- -- 8 -- 8 N/A
T9. Dustin Ostrander, Caseville -- -- 8 -- 8 N/A
T9. Charlie Karafa, Caseville -- -- 8 -- 8 N/A

Points for the Power 10 are awarded as following: 1st=10 pts., 2nd=9, 3rd=8, etc.

A win is a win

A win is a win. That is about all you can say about Harbor Beach's 52-37 win over Bad Axe.

Both teams played extremely sloppy in the first half, as there were as many turnovers as points scored in the first quarter. Most of them were on traveling calls.

Both coaches attributed some of the sloppy play to the interruption of their routine, as it has been many days since the team has practiced. HB coach Marilee Schock said her team had a shootout around early on the day of the game and 15 minutes in, every knew they struggling. They knew it might be a bad game.

For Bad Axe, the team is suffereing from a serious lack of confidence. As coach Bob Breault explaiend these girls are mentally beaten down by years of losing, which has sapped them of any assemblance of confidence. He says it also affects the team's ability to lay it all out there on the line when they need to.

Basically the biggest thing for this team is getting a "W" under their belt and building their confidence from there.

Steve Jias will be attending the Ubly @ EPBP girls game tomorrow and we'll have pics up from it late tonight.

Area cancellations

So far, only one game has been canceled today, but with 6-10 inches of snow expected, there will likely be more.
So far Ubly @ EPBP girls is cancelled and rescheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 23rd.
I'll continue to update this throughout the day; feel free to post an cancellations you are aware of and any make-up days as well.

****UPDATE****
Harbor Beach @ Bad Axe girls is cancelled and rescheduled for Monday, while Sanduksy @ USA girls game is also cancelled. That eliminates all local action for tonight, haven't heard about the games where our local NCTL teams are on the road.

Ubly 55, USA 47

Ubly pulled out a hard fought 55-47 win over USA on Tuesday night. The Bearcats trailed 17-4 at one poiit, but rallied to tie it at 24 at the half.

For Ubly, the team got off to a slow start, but really began to gel as the game progressed. Coach Joel Leipprandt has a lot of options in terms of what line-ups he can throw out there and said it will take a little more time to figure out the rotation. As for the Patriots, coach Mark Gainforth was proud of his team's effort, especially for a bunch of guys who got very little play time last year. He said the team learned alot about itslef tonight, but didn't learn one key thing...who wants the ball at the end of the game. He thinks they'll have a better idea by the time the league games start.