Don’t look now, but another serious contender for the boys 14C basketball conference crown emerged this weekend as the Noxon Red Devils won a pair of league games and lost to Class B Troy.

Noxon opened the week with a home upset of 14C co-leader Charlo 61-55 Thursday evening, then fought off a determined Alberton team 54-42 Saturday night, also at home to pick up a pair of crucial league wins.

In between those wins the Red Devils dropped a road game to Troy, 55-44 when the host Trojans came back in the fourth quarter to record the win.

Thursday was the big prize for the Red Devils as they knocked off Charlo with a comeback of their own in Noxon.

The visiting Vikings, who came to town with a 3-1 league record and a 7-4 overall mark, took a 14-10 lead after one quarter behind the inside play of 6-6 senior post Wesley Anderson and the outside contributions of senior guard Hayden Hollow.

Noxon then outscored Charlo 17-16 in the second quarter, keeping the game close and sending the two teams to the halftime intermission with the Vikings holding a narrow 30-27 lead.

By the start of the second half, Noxon’s big guy tandem of Shane Murrary, a 6-3 junior, and senior Aiden Carrie, 6-4, found a way to clamp down on Anderson’s inside play.

Charlo won the third quarter 17-13 and took a 47-40 lead with one quarter to play, but Anderson, who was visibly exhausted from battling Noxon’s version of the twin towers, was pretty much neutralized the rest of the way.

In the meantime, Murray, a rugged junior forward, was on his way to a team co-high of 20 points. Teammate Ricky Williams, an acrobatic 6-1 junior forward, was scoring seemingly at will, often with some improbable, off-balance shots that banked in for a point total that equaled the output by Murray.

Williams scored nine points to fuel the Red Devils comeback, including a two-point put-back of a missed Noxon shot that put the home team up 49-47. Noxon then fended off several mini-rallies by the Vikings, including a three-pointer by Hollow with 41 seconds left that pulled Charlo within three points as the Red Devils held on for a six-point win.

In addition to 20 points each by Williams and Murray, Noxon also got 11 points from 5-10 sophomore Justice Kayser.

Anderson led a trio of Vikings in double figure scoring with 17 points. Charlo also got 16 points from Karson Cox and 13 from Hollow.

Friday night the Red Devils journeyed to Troy for a non-conference clash with the Trojans and grabbed a slim 16-13 lead after one quarter of play. They added one point to that lead in the second quarter, giving them a 29-25 lead at halftime.

But Troy showed it was not done for the night when they fought back in the third quarter and sliced two points off the Noxon lead. Heading into the final quarter of regulation, the Red Devils clung to a 41-39 advantage.

The Trojans then outscored Noxon 14-5 the rest of the way to capture the come-from-behind win.

“Our Troy game was the opposite of our win over Charlo,” said Noxon head coach Trevor Kayser. “We played harder and were able to come back and beat Charlo. We lost our lead in the fourth quarter against Troy”.

Murray once again led Noxon with 14 points, while Williams tossed in 13 in the loss. Junior Brian Risch had nine for the Red Devils.

Noxon closed out their week Saturday at home with the win over 1-12 Alberton, a team that despite some lopsided losses this year, does not quit and plays hard to the final buzzer.

The Red Devils led 18-13 after the first quarter, then watched as Alberton outscored them 10-9 in the second quarter to slice Noxon’s halftime lead to 27-23.

But Williams and Murray fueled a third quarter outburst that bumped their lead to 45-30 entering the final eight minutes of regulation. But true to their play to the final ticks of the clock reputation, the Panthers out-pointed Noxon 12-9 in the fourth quarter. But it was not enough to overcome the early deficit.

Murray had a game-best 19 points for the Red Devils, who improved their 14C conference record to 4-2 and their overall mark to 4-4 this year.

Sophomore Shea Fredette continued his impressive season with a team-leading 16 points for Alberton, which also got 14 from Cadence Ketron.

Noxon plays at home against Two Eagle River this Friday night, then travels to Charlo for a rematch with the Vikings Saturday evening.

Alberton hosts league leader St. Regis Thursday, then hits the road for a game in Hot Springs against the Savage Heat Saturday evening.