2nd half lapse costly for ‘Skins in loss to HB

Point guard Brandon Mann of Peck brings the ball up the court in Friday night’s NCTL South game against Port Hope. (Photo by Joe Crawford) SANDUSKY - After a nice early start to the season, times have turned harder for Ryan Pritchett, Sandusky’s rookie boys hoops coach.

His Redskins had a chance to tighten the GTC East standings Friday night, but instead, Harbor Beach remained unbeaten by pulling away to a 62-51 victory at the Thumb Dome.

While the Pirates upped their record tp 4-0 in the East and 11-0 overall, the Redskins dropped their third straight division contest and fourth in their last five overall to slip back to 2-3, 6-5.

Sandusky suffered narrow defeats to Ubly and Brown City in East play, and also to Reese in a crossover game in the last three weeks. At home on Friday, the ‘Skins played the Pirates tight for three quarters.

With the Pirates’ Jake Murawske (6’3”, Sr., F) on the bench most of the first half with two fouyls, the Redskins trailed by just one, 27-26, at halftime.

Murawske, one of the top scorers in the Thumb, added an early spark for Beach in the third quarter with a couple of buckets, putting his team up, 34-28. Sandusky, though, retaliated with a 6-0 run - four points from junior post Corey Kursinsky and a bucket from junior Jordan Coats - and knotted the game at 34-34 with 4:05 left in the quarter.

It was Murawske, though, that jump-started a 16-4 run that went into the middle of of the fourth quarter. The talented senior broke the tie on his lay-in on an all-oop pass from Scott Grekowicz. Moments later, he added a putback on a missed shot and the Pirates never looked back.

“Murawske adds another dimension (for Harbor Beach),” commented Pritchett on the HB star, who finished with 17 points, including 14 in the second half. “After sitting out (much of the firtst half), he had fresh legs and took over.”

Pritchett added, “We made costly turnovers and they started hitting big shots and, all of a sudden, we were down 10. After that, I thoufght we became a little impatient.”

In the last stretch of games for the Redskins, inconsistency on offense has been an issue, said Pritchett. “Our effort is good..... but we just havn’t been hitting the big shots.”

Senior Brad Booms led Beach in scoring with 18 points. Justin Braun, a senior post, added 10 points.

For the Redskins, senior guard Andrew Fetting finished with 16 points. Coats chipped in with 10. Pritchett also noted that junior guard Pat Chappus came off the bench to add some spark, scoring five points and applying aggressive defensive pressure in the back court.

Sandusky will have a tough GTC East matchup at home tonight (Wednesday) against rival Marlette (3-1, 6-6) before visiting winless Mayville on Friday night.

The big showdown in the division is also tonight when Harbor Beach visits rival Ubly (4-0, 9-2).

Sandusky 73 Deckerville 43

The Redskins ripped the nets for 49 points in the first half and built a big lead against the Eagles in the East game on Tuesday evening.

Coats fired in a season-high 20 points to lead the ‘Skins in scoring. Fetting notched 12 and Lance Freeman chipped in with 11.

For Deckerville, senior Josh Fritch scored 15 points.