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The Cardinals reversed the momentum however, and went on to outscore the Eagles, 15-6 to finish the game and garner the win.  Aaron Badour led the Cards with 12 points while Jr. Forward, Ryan Schultz had 9 points.  4 of his 9 came at the line in the final seconds with some crucial free throws.  Trevor Cousineau added three more free throws along with Schultz in the game's final moments.  Lapeer East's Steve Wilmers led all scorers with 13 points.  Sophomore Payton McCallum added 11 points.

The first quarter set the tone for the 46-37 Alma victory.  The game was riddled with turnovers, missed baskets, and in true Alma-Shepherd rivalry fashion, fouls.  The first foul came 40 seconds into the game, when Shepherd’s Brett Lackie fouled Adam Follett sending him to the line.  Follett made his shot giving Alma their first lead of the game at 1-0.  The next seven minutes had Alma and Shepherd trading back and forth baskets and fouls.  With under a minute left, Alma’s Luke Kanine scrambled for a loose ball only to have Curtis Porter plow him over in his attempt to reach the ball.  This action left Porter with a Technical, Kanine at the free throw line with 11.8 seconds to go, and both team’s spectators in an uproar.  Kanine made his first shot and just missed his second leaving just enough time for Shepherd’s Neil Zalud to run down and drain a field goal with under a second left in the quarter, making the score 10-9 Alma.

The second quarter was unbelievably uneventful.  The quarter started off with a couple of Alma fouls, leaving Zalud at the line shooting and draining two.  Alma’s Nick Grace answered back with a three pointer.  The remainder of the quarter had the teams once a gain matching basket for basket ending with a score of 17-17 going into halftime.

Both teams emerged from the locker rooms with a new exuberance, but this did little to relieve the tension between the two teams.  The third quarter followed the scenario of foul, shot, foul.  Eleven fouls between the two teams sent two Blue Jays and one Panther to the line with all shots being missed.  A final shot with 5.7 seconds left in the third, by Alma’s Kyle Lark, made the score 27-22.

It was the final four minutes of the first quarter that put the game out of reach for the Red Raiders.
Trailing 7-6 with 4:17 left in the quarter, Casler called a timeout, rallied his team, and then watched as the Rockets outscored Marlette 17-2 over the last four minutes of the quarter.  Graham and Isaac Zimmer, who scored four points in the first quarter, led the way, harrassing the Marlette ballhandlers into giving the ball away.  The result was a barrage of points for the Rockets and a loss for the Red Raiders.  Marlette coach Chris Storm declined to comment after the game.  Reese had three players score in double figures, as sophomore Josh Pickell finished with 11 points and Taylor Mantey had 11 points and six rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end.  Zimmer ended the evening with seven points, five rebounds and two steals.  Graham also grabbed five rebounds and dished out three assists to lead the Rockets.

Marlette (0-2) was led offensively by Corey Nepper, who scored seven points.  Austin Comment, the Red Raiders scoring leader from a year ago, was held to just five points.
So here it is, just two games into the new season, and the Rockets look ready to compete for another conference title.  And it's all because of their defense.  "We empahsize that everyday," Casler said.  "I don't think there's another team in the whole area who works as hard as we do one both ends of the court.  "Our kids want to play that way so I make sure we practice as hard as we want to play."

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The game’s highest profile belonged to highly recruited Sophomore, Trey Zeigler, the 6.4 guard from Mt. Pleasant.  While Zeigler scored a game high 20 points, he was overshadowed by Kyle Wakeman from Midland High and a Chemic defense that gave the Oilers fits.  Wakeman finished with 19 points and had 5 three pointers.  His shots from downtown seemed to come at times where it hurt the Oilers most.  Up two points late in the 2^nd quarter, his three ball gave Midland a 5 points lead and just moments later he ended the scoring in the first half with another 3, extending the lead to 9 points, headed into the break.  His final score came midway through the 4^th quarter with momentum and the game up for grabs, Jakeman’s three pointer extended a 49-46 game out to 52-46 and the Chemics never looked back, closing it out with a 24-12 run.

Jakeman had 16 of his 19 come in the first half, hitting 3 – three pointers in the first quarter.  The Chemics hit 6 first half threes, with 2 coming from Eric Dawson, who had 9 points in the game.  Zeigler had 8 first half points but really turned it on in the 2^nd half.  Tyler Mills and William Arnold, the Valley’s most prolific WR-QB tandem in 2007 for the football season, combined from 21 points, Arnold hit 3 from downtown.  The two also hooked up for a fast break alley-oop in the first half.  The Oilers got themselves in a hole early, being down 21-11 after the first quarter.  Give them credit, as they battled all the way back to take the lead early in the 4^th quarter on a Mills basket, with 6:35 to go in the game.  The Chemics, then showed their resolve as they took Mt. Pleasant’s best shot and came back with a knockout punch that was powered by the press and some good halfcourt defense as well.  Chris O’Brien’s three pointer to put the Chemics up 44-42, gave them the lead for good.  O’Brien had a solid night with 10 points.  The Chemics sank 9 free-throws at the end of the contest to ice it, 5 of them by guard, Evan Sanders.