CRYSTAL FALLS—Forest Park’s boys basketball team had less than a full crew on deck for its regular season finale here March 2, but the Trojans had few problems defeating North Central 68-57.

With the win, the Trojans finish the regular season 12-8 overall, 9-5 in the Skyline Conference. On tap this week: the Class D District 127 tournament at Watersmeet.

The Trojans just had eight players dressed for the game due to a late visit by the flu bug—senior Josh Siler and soph Jake Divine missed the game completely. Levi Oleksy (hamstring) also didn’t play but took part in the senior recognition before the game.

Once the main event started, Forest Park took care of things quickly, outplaying the Jets and building a lead that held up the rest of the way. “Very pleased with the defensive effort tonight,” Coach Gene Dziubinski said. “We controlled them really well.”

Dan Renner scored nine points in the first quarter as the Trojans built a 13-8 after one quarter, but FP’s offense really opened up in the second quarter. Two Tim Martin fast-break baskets sandwiched Taylor Bartczak’s three-pointer, building a 20-8 lead.

North Central came back with threes by Steven LeBoeuf and Bryce Bilski, but Christian Valesano responded with a two and a three for the Trojans. Later, the Trojans ran off 11 straight points—another three by Bartczak, a three-point play (basket plus one) by Kody Thrasher, a Martin bucket and then a Martin three-point play.

That made it 40-20, though the Jets cut it to 40-25 by halftime. Forest Park scored 27 points in the second quarter, and Martin had 11 of them.

The Jets never quit. They dogged the Trojans relentlessly in the forecourt and later went to a swarming full-court press, along with shooting threes.

It worked somewhat. Forest Park’s lead, which had grown to 21 early in the fourth quarter, got chopped down to size by a 13-0 Jets rally.

They got within eight with about 2 ½ minutes left but never got any closer, as Trojan free throws built the lead back up. “Very pleased with how they handled the lead and the time in the fourth quarter,” Dziubinski said.

“I knew North Central would just come out and pester us. I thought our kids did a very nice job controlling the ball and getting the time off the clock.”

The Trojans used a straight-up man-to-man defense all night. “Right now, that’s our strength. We’re helping well on it, we’re denying, and I’m very pleased with the overall performance.”

The Trojans shot 45% from the field (27% on threes). North Central shot 34%.

Martin was top scorer with 20 points, and Renner was right behind with 17. Bartczak finished with 10, and Valesano and Thrasher both scored eight.

Thrasher had been called up from the JV team due to Siler and Divine being out, and he held his own. “He did a nice job for us.”

Martin had seven assists, and Bartczak had six more. Renner led with 14 rebounds, and Martin pulled down eight.

The Trojans’ regular season ended with four home games. They played well in all four, winning three and losing by three points to powerful Bark River-Harris.

“I’m very pleased with the last four games,” the coach said. “We’re playing good basketball right now, the kind of basketball we need to take into the district.”

For the rest of last week, Dziubinski said he would have the Trojans work on defending the three. “Right now, we do a good job, but they’re still getting the shots off. We need to put enough pressure.”

The team also needs to find more energy when facing a zone—the team at times gets hesitant, leading to bad passes.

The District 127 tournament at Watersmeet started March 8. Forest Park got Monday night off—first round games had Bessemer (6-14) vs. Ontonagon (9-10) and Wakefield-Marenisco (4-16) vs. Watersmeet (6-14).

Forest Park plays the Bessemer-Ontonagon winner at 5 p.m. Central Time on March 10, and Ewen-Trout Creek (15-5) faces the Wakefield-Watersmeet victor at 6:30.

The district title game tips off at 6 p.m. on March 12. The winner advances to the Class D regional tournament at Michigan Tech March 15 and 17.

Jets 8 17 15 17 -- 57

Trojans 13 27 19 9 -- 68