Photos: Slow start sinks Onekama against Benzie Central - Manistee News Advocate

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ONEKAMA — Onekama boys basketball spent the night playing catch up in a Northwest Conference matchup against Benzie Central on Friday. When the dust settled the Portagers were on the wrong end of an 84-31 home loss.

"I knew coming in they have a pretty talented team. They just got done beating Ludington, and that's not easy," said Onekama coach Nathan Bradford. "They have a lot of seniors and most of their kids are pretty big kids. We're so young right now, so we're going to take a few lumps here and there. I told the kids to try to block out the score, because they jumped on us early. I just wanted them to try to keep working hard and progress."

The Huskies (2-0, 1-0 NWC) opened the game with a 15-0 run before Adam Domres put Onekama (0-4, 0-2 NWC) on the board with a bucket down low. The Portagers struggled with turnovers and trailed 22-4 after the first frame.

"(The key was) just getting out and running and playing with some tempo," said Benzie coach Josh Crocker. "We've got a group of guys that likes to take advantage of some of those opportunities and hopefully get some easy buckets in transition, and tonight was no different. ... We were getting out and running and trying to get some of those easy buckets."

Onekama was much more competitive in the second quarter, but even after Tyler Hart and Sawyer Christensen each knocked down a jumper in the waning seconds of the half, the Portagers headed into the locker room trailing 34-12.

Bradford said Onekama did a better job keeping the Huskies out of the lane in the second quarter.

"I told them to pack it in a little bit. We did settle down a little bit and we were rotating a little better at first," he said. "We were being a little aggressive and coming out to get them. They have good guards and they attack and rotate well. When we came up to get them they made the extra pass and finished."

Domres paced Onekama with 10 points and three rebounds, Caden Bradford finished with five points and four assists and Dante Gray recorded four points and grabbed three boards.

The Portagers were able to get the ball inside to Domres in the third quarter and he scored six in the frame. Unfortunately, Benzie's offense exploded for 27 in the quarter and Onekama trailed 61-24 heading into the final stanza.

"He's a big factor in the game," Bradford said of Domres. "... He's a force inside so we try to get it down to him when we can. The last couple games he's been playing really well for us."

Quinn Zickert led the Huskies with 21 points, recording 15 in the first half. Jaxon Childers scored 18 points and Nate Childers finished with 14.

Crocker said he was pleased with how his team crashed the boards.

"I would say it was a nice slight change for these guys from earlier in the year," he said. "It seemed like that was a little bit slow to take off, but we had a really good, high energy, emotional game against Ludington the other night and I think it showed them some of the things they were capable of."

Benzie Central kept pouring it on in the fourth and never looked back.

Bradford said when coaching a young team the main goal is for them to keep improving.

"I have two freshmen starting and sophomores coming in and juniors, so we didn't have one senior out there," he said. "I told the kids to live and learn and if we keep working at and keep getting better, our time will come."

Onekama is slated to host Bear Lake on Jan. 4 with the junior varsity set to tip off at 5 p.m.