By John Raffel
McBain Northern Michigan Christian’s boys basketball team goes into its home game on Thursday of this week against Roscommon with a four-game win streak.
NMC is 6-3 in the Hghland Conference and 8-3 overall.
Coach Kyle Benthem’s team beat visiting Western Michigan Christian on Friday and topped Beal City 61-56 on Tuesday of this week.
Against WMC, the Comets had quarter leads of 16-11, 31-20 and 54-34. Ethan Bennett had 21 points and 14 rebounds for the Comets, Blake DeZeeuw had 17 points and six assist, Brant Winkle had 12 points and four steals and Nathan Eisenga had 12 points.
“We had a much better offense,” Bentham said. “We passed and got each other open tonight. We are working to become a team that creates for other players. We kind of kept chipping away the entire game. Ethan Bennett had a great game. We played extremely well defensively.”
It was an extremely competitive game against Beal City which led 18-17 after the first quarter. It was 35-34, Comets, at halftime, and 47-45, Aggies, after the third.
The Comets beat visiting Pine River 53-40 on Jan. 18. The Comets had a 16-9 scoring advantage in the fourth to take the win.
Bennett had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Winkle 15 points, Blake DeZeeuw 12 points and Eisenga 10 points.
“It was a hard fought Highland Conference game,” Bentham said. “The game went back and forth all night. Finally, with three minutes to go, we were able to take the lead and get a defensive stop. Blake DeZeeuw then made two free throws to go up by three. We kept making defensive stops when it counted, scoring all our free throws to win the game by five.
“Ethan Bennett had a great game. He was unstoppable down low and finished very well around the rim. It was a big league win for us.”
The Comets beat visiting Pine River 53-40 on Jan. 18. Winkle scored 21 points. NMC had quarter leads of 12-6, 18-17 and 37-24.