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The Eagles turned a seesaw first half into a dominating final two quarters to roll by Marlette, 65-43, to pick up their first division victory of the season. Deckerville is now 1-3 in the East and 2-5 overall. Marlette, meanwhile, slipped to 1-2 and 3-6.

"Everybody came out to play," said Head Coach Steve Keinath of the Eagles. "Everybody wanted this win after losing to Brown City and then Sandusky by 20-plus points. Everyone wanted to come out and play hard."

Deckerville jumped out to an early eight-point lead, but the Raiders came back, mainly on some inside scoring led by Shane Mitrovich, to keep it a tight game, trailing 32-27, at the break.

The Eagles then took charge in the third quarter with inside play from 6'5" senior Sean Hornby and help from Ethyan Kramer and Cody Hoff. Following a block by Hornby, Deckerville came down court to take it's biggest lead of the night, 47-31, on Kramer's two-pointer with 1:32 to go in the quarter.

Sophomore point guard Josh Fritch then ignited a spurt in the fourth quarter that put his team up by 21. Fritch drilled a triple and followed quickly with a two-pointer to make it, 56-35. Moments later, he made a sharp feed inside to Hoff that put the Eagles up 58-36 with 5:10 left to play.

Hornby, who came off the bench, probably turned in his best game of the season for the Eagles, finishing with 13 points and 15 rebounds, plus defending the middle with his long reach.

"Sean probably had three or four blocks. He had four offensive rebounds and 11 defensive. It was a big night on the boards for him. He's a guy that we want to ride on his back," explained Keinath.

Kramer, a lanky 6'3" junior, finished with 14 points, including a pair of threes, and 10 rebounds. Keinath commented, "He helped us out a lot. He stepped up and made a couple of big threes.

Then, there's Hoff (6'2", So.),, who quietly spread out his game-high 16 points.

"He's one of our guys that we know when we get the ball in his hands, he'll score. We're counting on him to carry a load for us the next couple of years," added Keinath.

On the other side, Marlette coach Chris Storm was shaking his head over his team's poor shooting night. The Raiders were just 19 of 62 from the floor, and only 1 of 17 from beyond the arc.

"We got out-hustled. Deckerville played well and they beat us up on the boards," said Storm. "But, we had no flow or rhythm on offense.

"In the second quarter, we really got into the paint, but we got away from it, and maybe Deckerville adjusted," Storm added.

Keinath noted, "They were beating us on the inside. So, we told the kids...to make them beat us on the outside, and we played a little better defense."

Mitrovich, a 6' senior, was the lone Raider in double figures, finishing with 12 points. Senior Austin Comment added nine points, three steals and three blocks.

Deckerville has a GTC crossover game at Cass City tonight (Wednesday) and hosts Mayville in a East Division clash on Friday. Marlette has a pair of East contests this week - tonight at home against Mayville and Friday evening at Harbor Beach.

Ubly 60 Marlette 48

The Raiders were outscored 35-20 in the middle two quarters in last Wednesday's East battle with the Bearcats.

Comment led the scoring for Marlette with 14 points and John Bishop had a double-double, 13 points and 10 boards.