Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Rapid River’s Tyler Sundling (10) pulls up for a shot against Carney-Nadeau’s Brett LaFord (15) Monday in Rapid River.

RAPID RIVER — In a game of see-saw, the Rapid River boys basketball team finally pulled away late to finish the Carney-Nadeau Wolves 55-48 Monday at Rapid River in a Skyline Central Conference contest.

“It was just a matter of getting into the game,” Rockets’ coach Mitch Hall said. “It’s our first full week back, and we’ve had a lot of time off. I knew we had to get in the rhythm early, but it took us a little longer to get into than we wanted.”

After trailing 20-15 going into the second quarter, the Rockets (3-1, 3-1 SCC) took a 28-26 halftime lead, forcing the Wolves (4-3, 2-2 SCC) to try to keep up with them.

“(We lost the momentum with) missed shots,” Wolves’ coach Paul Polfus said. “I thought we had opportunities, and we just missed shots. We only scored six points in the second quarter, so obviously we have to take care of some offensive stuff.”

Despite trailing by 11 in the third, Carney went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter tied 41-41.

Neither team could find the net for the first two and a half minutes, but Carney’s Jerry Lee LaFord broke the stalemate with a putback on his own shot.

Forty seconds later, Rapid River’s Tyler Sundling answered back with a trey to give the Rockets back the lead.

The Rockets added five more points over the next two minutes to increase the gap to 49-43 with 2:54 remaining. Shortly after, Max Baumler added a layup and Brett LaFord drilled a triple to reduce Carney’s deficit to one.

“Brett always does a good job,” Polfus said. “We just need some consistency from other players. It seems like a lot of the load gets put on his shoulders, and we need some other guys to step up. Hopefully, those guys will fill those roles as the season goes on.

“I give my kids credit for coming back and playing at that level, but offensively, we have to make shots. That’s pretty much what it comes down to.”

Hall called a timeout with 1:47 remaining to regroup.

“A lot of times we’ll switch in and out of some defenses there, and I’ll just ask the guys what they want to do,” he said.

“They just wanted to stay with it. We knew if we had the lead late in the game, they’d have to follow it and try to get their possessions. We just had to take care of the ball and take really good shots, and that’s what we did.”

It proved a good decision for Sundling as he came out 15 seconds later to hit a fadeaway jumper and give the Rockets some breathing room. He then intercepted a pass on C-N’s next possession.

“I think it’s a game of runs,” Hall said. “They handled themselves well. You can’t count Carney out. They’re just not going to lay down. They had a lot of effort there late in the game, and kudos to them. I thought we weathered it pretty well and kept our heads and composure and finished strong.”

The Rockets played keep away as time ticked down before they found an opportunity under the basket for Mason Kudlick to pass it off to Griffin Flath for another two points to lead 53-48.

“Griffin Flath came off the bench as our sixth or seventh man and played huge for us on the defensive side,” Hall said. “He was just making it really hard on their guards and made it really easy for our wings to make picks.”

A Carney timeout with 25 seconds left didn’t work the same magic it did for Rapid River, as Sundling intercepted another pass and then drilled two free throws with nine seconds left to seal the win.

Brett LaFord led the Wolves with 19 points and two triples. Max Baumler followed with 13 points.

The Rockets were led by Sundling with 21 points and two treys, while Tony DeMars notched 15.

Rapid River, which won the jayvee game 57-29, hosts Munising Wednesday. Carney hosts Bark River-Harris Thursday.

Carney-Nadeau 20 6 15 7 — 48

Rapid River 15 13 13 14 — 55

Carney-Nadeau — B. LaFord 19, Baumler 13, Koffman 6, Flanagan 5, Kakuk 3, J. LaFord 2. FT: 4-6; F: 12; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Koffman 2, B. LaFord 2, Flanagan 1, Baumler 1.

Rapid River — Sundling 21, DeMars 15, Kudlick 9, Flath 7, Moss 3. FT: 5-9; F: 6; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Sundling 2, Kudlick 1, Moss 1.