Raiders keep pace in East; get big tests this week

Dillon Howe MAYVILLE - After chalking up an impressive win over Mayville this past week, the Marlette Red Raiders will get a chance to find out right away if they have a chance at the GTC East boys hoops title.

The Raiders throttled winless Mayville, 64-30, to climb to 3-1 in the division and back to the .500 mark, 6-6, overall. Two games this week, at Sandusky (2-3, 6-5) tonight (Wednesday) and home versus Ubly (4-0, 9-2) on Friday, now loom.

“The kids are playing well, right now,” said Chjris Storm, Marlette coach. “Hopefully, we can finish out well. I think we’re in a good position.”

Sandusky, always a rivalry battle, has landed on some tough times lately with tight setbacks to Ubly, Reese, and Brown City. Meanwhile, Ubly, with 6’6” Steven Weber and 6’8” Tyler Kubacki, will be coming off a huge showdown with unbeaten Harbor Beach (tonight).

“This is really a big week for us. We can put ourselves in contention for the league title or we can put ourselves right out of it,” offered Storm.

A fast start against the Wildcats pleased Storm. The Raiders led the ‘Cats, 28-5, after the first quarter and, 54- 22, after three quarters.

“We got off to a nice start with our defense and we were able to put our offense together with that,” Storm said.

In a balanced scoring attack, senior Dillon Howe tossed in 12 points, his first double-digit effort of the season.

“He had a nice game,” lauded Storm. “I think we’ll see a little more of that out of him. He’s running the point now and he’s active on the defensive end out front.”

Marlette also had 12 points from Alex Storm, 10 points from Mike Armstrong, and seven points each from Brandon King and Kyle Hall