POWERS — Forest Park succumbed to North Central’s tight defense in a 54-37 loss to open the season Tuesday.

The Trojans were troubled by the Jets’ height throughout the night, shooting 14 of 51 including 3 for 20 from long range.

“It was a tough matchup for us,” Forest Park head coach Chris Nocerini said. “Give them credit — North Central did a nice job tonight.”

Riley Hendrickson’s 12 points paced the Trojans, while Tommy Showers added 10.

Griffin Johnson led North Central with 14 points, followed by 12 from Brady Eichmeier.

The Trojans were held to six points in the second and third quarters while the Jets scored 24 points in that span. Nocerini said he also noticed some of the usual early-season rust. And the boys’ season starting a week early doesn’t help, he said.

“We’re not supposed to be playing basketball during deer season,” Nocerini said.

“It’s just doing the fundamental things right. I don’t think our overall conditioning was there tonight. We got winded, which is nice now. We can look at a game we played and show these kids where we have to improve. Until this point you’re practicing against each other and everything looks great. Now I really feel like we have a starting point on the season.”

North Central JV won.

Forest Park hosts Mid Peninsula on Monday.

Forest Park 16 4 2 15 — 37

North Central 20 9 15 10 — 54

FOREST PARK (37): Hendrickson 12, Showers 10, Peltoma 4, Nylund 4, Franz 3, Emmers 2, Johnson 2. FT: 6-13. F: 12. FG: 14-51. 3PT: 3-20 (Hendrickson 2, Franz 1). Rebounds: 30 (Peterson 5, Emmers 5, Franz 5, Peltoma 5).

NORTH CENTRAL (54): Johnson 14, Eichmeier 12, Hanchek 10, Holle 8, Bentley 4, Gorzinski 3, Timblin 3. FT: 12-14. F: 15. FG: 18-62. 3PT: 6-18 (Hanchek 3, Johnson 2, Gorzinski 1). Rebounds: 35 (Eichmeier 11).

Nordics beat Broncos

HARRIS — North Dickinson took advantage of steals to help beat Bark River-Harris 48-46 in the season opener Tuesday.

The Nordics (1-0) had 14 steals on the night, including eight from Quentin Ackerman and six from Cameron Schultz to grab momentum from the Broncos.

“We’ll take a win, especially our first game on the road,” North Dickinson head coach Chris Mattson said.

Bark River-Harris came out strong and held off a late first-half rally by the Nordics for a 27-23 halftime lead.

The Broncos came out and hit its first three shots to extend the lead. Then Ackerman and Schultz teamed up with stingy guard defense at the top of the key, pressuring the Broncos into turnovers. Suddenly, the Nordics had a one-point lead.

The Nordics held on to the lead with the Broncos within three points for most of the second half. At the end, Bark River-Harris made a shot to pull within two and about four seconds left in the game. The Nordics kept the ball away to run out the clock and secure the win.

“Overall, if I had to put one kind of mark on the game, that maybe won it for us, it would’ve been our guard’s defense against their ball-handlers,” Mattson said. “We did a good job getting hands on it. We took those steals and made steals on the other end.”

Bark River-Harris JV won, 57-37.

North Dickinson plays at Kingsford on Friday.

North Dickinson 7 16 14 11 — 48

Bark River-Harris 15 12 11 8 — 46

NORTH DICKINSON (48): Ackerman 12, Schultz 13, Bruette 19, Roell 4. FT: 2-6. 3PT: 2-9 (Ackerman 1, Schultz 1). FG: 22-54. Rebounds: 25 (Joe Roell 7). F: 7. Turnovers: 14. Steals: 14 (Schultz 8, Ackerman 6).

BARK RIVER-HARRIS (46): Stenberg 4, Bower 14, Javurek 11, Zawacki 9, Debelak 8. FT: 6-6. 3PT: 2 (Javurek 1, Zawacki 1). F: 8.

Knights fall to Munising

NORWAY — The Norway Knights dropped the season opener 44-31 to Munising on Tuesday.

The Knights (0-1) never found a consistent offensive tempo, head coach Jeff Gallino said.

“We played good half court defense,” he said. “Offensively, we were impatient at times and made some poor decisions. Credit Munising for that. We need to do a better job of taking care of the basketball.”

Kody Hendricks led Norway with 11 points. Mitchell LeGrave had six points before fouling out.

Munising led a 23-13 halftime advantage.

The Knights visit Rapid River on Wednesday, Dec. 5.

Munising 8 15 7 14 — 44

Norway 7 6 13 5 — 31

MUNISING (44): Mattson 10, Matson 9, Huotari 7, Killips 7, Werner 5, Smith 2, Cornisth 2, Waldron 2. FT: 7-15. F: 9. 3PT: 3 (Huotari 1, Matson 1, Killips 1).

NORWAY (31): Hendricks 11, LeGrave 6, VanHolla 5, Benjamin 4, Lasater 3, Paulitch 2. FT: 3-5. F: 15 (LeGrave fouled out). 3PT: 2 (Hendricks 1, Lasater 1).

Patriots win opener

PEMBINE, Wis. — Caleb Nelson’s 27 points led Goodman-Pembine in a 52-35 win over Wausaukee on Tuesday to start the season.

Nelson scored 19 points in the second half to help the Patriots to the win. Evan Metras and Logan Maloney added 11 and seven points, respectively.

Tyler Gruszynski and Tristan Pollord had 10 points apiece to lead Wausaukee.

The Patriots (1-0) visit Niagara on Thursday.

Wausaukee 16 19 — 35

Goodman-Pembine 20 32 — 52

WAUSAUKEE (35): Gruszynski 10, Pollord 10, Shigouri 4, Schroeder 3, Kurowski 2, Russ 1. FT: 13-18. F: 21.

GOODMAN-PEMBINE (52): Nelson 27, Metras 11, Maloney 7, Gilbert 3, Wallshlager 2, Maruszczak 2. FT: 12-25. F: 17 (Wallschlager and Maruszczak fouled out). 3PT: 3 (Metras 1, Nelson 1, Gilbert 1).