The Superior Central boys basketball team has done a good job at not allowing losses to turn into losing streaks this season. The Cougars kept that positive trend going on Friday, when they defeated Rapid River 51-31; this occurring just three days after a tough road loss to Carney-Nadeau “Coming off a loss, we didn’t want to turn it into consecutive losses and needed to protect our home court,” head coach Adam Ely said. “Jason Kanerva came up big for us with some defensive possessions at the end. Overall, we aren’t thrilled with how we played this week, we need to clean some stuff up to make our push towards the end of the season.”

CJ Adams and Kanerva hit first quarter threes for the Cougars, and they were able to take a 9-3 lead after one. Trent Rutter scored four points to lead the way in the second, and S-C played to a 19-9 lead at the half.

Rutter really got going in the third, connecting on seven field-goals to get 14 points. Blake Tanner and Kanerva also had threes in the quarter as they pulled away to lead 41-23 entering the fourth.

The Cougars had Rutter finish with 18 points to lead all scorers. Logan Frusti and Kanerva put in 10 points apiece, Tanner scored five while Adams and Zander Bigger had four points each.

On Tuesday, Jan. 23 the Cougars, competing without a key player, lost at Carney-Nadeau, 45-42.

“We knew the game at Carney was going to be tough without Trent Rutter,” Ely said. “We were up eight with six minutes to go and six with three-and-a-half minutes to go. So, we were in position to finish the game, but honestly I thought we were just soft.”

In the first quarter, Bigger hit for four points, but the Cougars were unable to do much else, as it was 5-5 after one. Bigger had four more points in the second, and Adams knocked down a pair of threes, and S-C managed to take a slim 16-13 lead at the half.

Frusti hit for six points in the third and the Cougars were still in good shape entering the fourth, leading 31-27.

Bigger scored six more points in the final frame, but that wasn’t enough to hold back the surging Wolves, as they rallied with a huge fourth quarter for the win.

The Cougars were led by Bigger with 16 points, Adams netted nine, Frusti finished with eight, Kanerva added five and with four was Tanner.

Superior Central (12-3 overall) was at home against Rock Mid-Pen on Tuesday, hosted Big Bay on Thursday, they’ll make the trip to Rapid River on Tuesday and they host Forest Park on Friday, Feb. 9.

“In the net few weeks we need everyone healthy and we need to work towards peaking at district time,” Ely said.