Posted by Matt Wenzel, Manistee News Advocate

CUSTER — December 11, 2012   While most teams got their seasons underway last week, Onekama had to wait.

The Portagers may have to wait a lot longer to match their opening first half of the season.

Onekama scored 52 points in the first half to build a 32-point lead and cruised late for an 84-62 West Michigan D League win on Tuesday against Mason County Eastern.

“We’re not going to shoot like that all the time and it was nice to have all things hitting,” said Onekama coach Jim Hunter. “The 3-pointers were dropping and the fast breaks were going.”

The Portagers (1-0, 1-0 WMD) played a near-flawless first half that was capped by outscoring the Cardinals (0-2, 0-1 WMD) 30-6 in the second quarter.

“We were ready to play,” said Onekama senior Bryce Reckow. “We came out strong tonight.”

Reckow led all scorers with 24 points to go with eight assists, five rebounds and three blocks, Quinn Matthews scored 20 and Derek Hobart hit six 3-pointers to finish with 20 points as well. Despite giving up the better part of a foot to his counterpart in the paint, Jimmy Appledorn, Joe Eno played well down low and scored 13 points.

From the outset, Reckow ran the offense well by penetrating for the shot or finding open teammates when the double team came his way.  “He’s a very unselfish player,” Hunter said. “If he wanted to just shoot it all the time, teams could just choke that off. … When you’ve got your best offensive threats being unselfish, as a team that makes you awful tough to defend.”

Onekama led 22-14 after the first quarter and essentially buried MCE in the second, opening with a 12-0 run.

“I was a little worried that maybe we’d have too many jitters and a be a little too revved up at first — and maybe we were a little bit — but I think after the first couple minutes the sweat got working and the legs got working and we settled down,” Hunter said. “The kids worked hard. The defense generated some points, which you like to see, the fast break generated some points, which you like to see — especially as much as we stress it — and the half-court game produced for us.”

Onekama’s Joe Eno (41) elevates for a shot between Mason County Eastern’s Ryan Claveau (left) and Jimmy Appledorn during the second half of Tuesday’s game. (Matt Wenzel/News Advocate)

Hobart hit a trio of deep triples in the second quarter for 11 points and Reckow scored 11 as well as the Portagers took a 52-20 lead into halftime.

“You can’t give up 50 points in a half,” said MCE coach Steve Hull. “That’s all right for a final stat in the game, but if you give that up in a half, you know you’re going to have trouble out there. … They put it all together, especially in that first half.”

Onekama led by as many as 36 early in the third quarter but got a little sloppy in the second half and was outscored by MCE over the final 16 minutes. The Portagers also committed 16 turnovers in the second half after having just three in the first two quarters.

“Maybe harder than battling back from 30 down is going out and playing hard when you’re up 30,” Hunter said. “We rotated a lot of kids in and that messed with the rhythm a little bit.

“They left me a few things to work on,” he added. “(But) for us being the first game, I’m really tickled.”

Austin Martin led the Cardinals with 20 points while Justice Gilchrist scored 13.

The Onekama JV team beat MCE 51-40. Caleb Wisniski led the Portagers (1-0) with 10 points, Randy Pienta scored nine and Hunter Morley eight.