The Superior Central Cougars varsity girls and boys basketball teams hosted the Hannahville Soaring Eagles Thursday in their respective contests, the girls hosting a scrimmage and the boys a regular season Central Upper Peninsula conference game.

The Cougars girls sophomore Addie Frusti won the tip-off. Foul-abundant basketball eventually resulted in the Cougars winning 38-20. Frusti scored three points throughout the contest.

\As time was expiring in the third quarter, the Cougars attempted to roll the ball inbounds to not start the game clock until the ball would be picked up. This would have given them a better chance at making a shot. This, however, is against the rules of basketball and resulted in a retry of the inbound pass.

The Cougars were led by junior Sammy Johnson who contributed 12 points. Freshman Peyton Adams also heavily contributed with 11 points. Freshman Kianna Perron played well also, contributing heavily to the Cougars defensive game. Perron contributed two points. The two freshmen played incredibly well throughout the contest. Senior Alice Hancock scored eight points and sophomore Marissa Strohm scored two.

The Cougars boys went into the game without star senior Jason Kanerva, who was out with a shoulder injury. Cougar senior Trent Rutter won the tip-off for boys. Akin to the girls game, fouls were prevalent on both teams throughout the game. Physical basketball was the norm; both teams sticking to man-to-man face guard defense throughout the contest. A battle of wit and endurance played out, with the teams being near even at the half. The game ended in a 42-32 victory for Superior Central.

Cougar senior Logan Frusti said that losing Kanerva will be a problem felt throughout the year.

“Of course Kanerva is a huge loss for us and for the time he is out we are down to a more strung out rotation. Drew Begovac stepped up big for us and did his thing and Blake Tanner also was a huge contributor to our win coming off the bench.”

Frusti led the Cougars scoring with 15 points. Senior Trent Rutter scored nine, junior Zander Bigger had eight, sophomore Blake Tanner with seven and senior CJ Adams ended with five.