Red Devils strong, Lady Devils came up short
<p>Senior Red Devil Austin Tucker takes control of the ball at the half time buzzer with the score at 21-16 Noxon during the game against Troy.</p>
NOXON – The Red Devils faced off Troy on Saturday in a close game that resulted in a 48 – 41 win.
Head coach Mike Tessier said the team played well and had a lot of contributions from the bench.
“We were heading most of the way. We took the lead for a short while and it was pretty tight down the stretch,” Coach Tessier said. “We had some shots down the stretch that won the game for us.”
Austin Tucker put up 16 points in the game while Oliver Grupenhoff added 11 points. Neal Jopling had nine points and Brandon Piazzola added seven points to the total. Tanner Tammaro had three points and Tyler Piazzola shot two points.
“Troy is a tough place to play and a tough place to win. They’re a good team and well coached. We were expecting to have our hands full and we did,” said Coach Tessier.
The Red Devils have a busy week ahead of them with three games. The next game for the Red Devils was Tuesday against St. Regis.
Coach Tessier said Noxon had a size advantage over the Tigers with giants Grupenhoff and Tucker, a hard duo for many teams to match up to.
“As long as we show up and play tonight, we should be okay,” said Tessier Tuesday morning before the game.
For updates on how the Red Devils did on Tuesday night, check out vp-mi.com.
From there Noxon will face off Charlo on Friday.
Coach Tessier expects the game to be a tough one.
“The Noxon-Charlo rivalry has been going on for a long time. We should have a good crowd there for the game and are expecting it to be a fun time,” said Coach Tessier.
The rescheduled game against Two Eagle River will go down on Saturday and according to the coach, once again Noxon’s size will be tough to match up with.
“They can get going up there and we’ve had some pretty close games against them,” said Tessier. “We need to keep them from getting hot on the outside.”
The Noxon Lady Devils also played Troy but came up with a 20-36 loss, bringing their record to 0-3.
McKenna Krueger led Noxon with eight points while Tierrah Camara and Brooke Smithborne each scored four points. Kendall Aitken and Shelby Clark both netted two points in the game.
The Lady Devils faced off St. Regis on Tuesday and will also come head-to-head with Charlo on Friday.