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The victory came in the opening round of KalkaskaÕs own Fifth Annual Holiday Hoops Tournament. The win was not only the teams first, but also marked the inaugural triumph of first year coach David Manchester and his energetic staff.

Kalkaska, which had opened the season with four tough road losses, was bolstered by not only their enthusiastic fan base, but also a solid group of boosters whose volunteer efforts made the weekends activities an overwhelming success.

The opening quarter was a frantic skirmish during which Kalkaska laid a marker defensively that would be their hallmark throughout the evening. Houghton Lake proved more than equal to the challenge early.

Neither team was able to establish an offensive rhythm. Exasperated, both teams strained and accelerated the pace. Chris Keller, who finished with seventeen points, provided valuable protection around the rim, while Jake Heller cashed in on the bountiful opportunities for rebounds.

Alex Krause provided a fresh set of legs off the bench early and the Blazers began to out pace Houghton Lake by the end of the first quarter. Starting the second quarter with only a 9-6 lead, the slide that had initiated near the end of the first period, became an outright avalanche.

Houghton Lake was buried. Guard Marc Wallace who tallied twelve points on the evening began to control tempo offensively. Kalkaska put up 22 big points in the second as the energy provided by the deep bench left the Bobcats without an answer. Halftime found the Blazers up comfortably by a score of 31-11.

Throughout the second half the Blazers were never threatened. The rotating format of coach Manchester disallowed the Bobcats from ever achieving the comfort level necessary to mount a sustained run.

ÒI rotate eleven kids and one thru eleven played well,Ó said the rookie coach when asked about the outcome. When asked how it felt to shake the monkey off and get the first win ManchesterÕs response was Òbetter, not satisfied, never satisfied, but definitely better.Ó

Manchester knew that his squad would have a tough test the next evening with the Manistee Chippewa who had cruised earlier in the evening past the undermanned Mio Thunderbolts 66-40.

Kalkaska was unable to replicate the result the next night in the championship game. Superior in size both geographically and physically, the Chippewa of Manistee took home the trophy with a 64-54 win over the scrappy Blazers.

The effort on both ends of the floor was top notch, but the ability of the Blazers to avoid turnovers early coupled by outside shooting woes left Kalkaska wanting. Early foul trouble on Marc Wallace dictated a rotation pattern that left the Blazers without a calming influence at point guard. ManisteeÕs girth inside stymied the offensive flow and forced the Blazers to settle for an ineffective array of outside shots.

Still, Kalkaska found themselves only down 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. The bad symptoms displayed early turned to illness though as Kalkaska was only able to tally seven points in the second stanza and fell behind 33-18 at the half.

Blazer fans werenÕt disappointed with a second half effort by the home team which saw the boys climb to within nine with a minute and fifty seconds remaining after falling down by as many as eighteen. The final score was indicative of an effort that was good enough to stay competitive, but not sufficient for the win.

Questioned post game, David Manchester had nothing but high praise for the manner in which his team continued to scrap until the final horn. ÒThey played phenomenally, they never quit. ThatÕs why I love Kalkaska, and thatÕs why I love my team,Ó he said.

When challenged about the wisdom of an early schedule that included opponents as formidable as Petoskey, Marquette, and Manistee, Manchester insisted heÕd do it over.

ÒAgainst both Marquette and Petoskey we went in tied at half. We are undefeated in 2007 and hope to stay that way. The hard schedule was put in place to prepare us for conference games. IÕll schedule college teams if they would play us,Ó he said.

Manchester lauded the effort of Chris Keller who averaged 19 points and 14 rebounds throughout the tournament.

Kalkaska will play Boyne City on Friday, Jan. 5.