By James Cook jcook@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — To say Landon Kulawiak is on fire is an understatement.

The 6-2 Buckley freshman scored 31, 23 and 29 points in his last three games, and that’s not even the most impressive part.

Among those 83 points, 57 came from 3-point land. Also not the most impressive part.

He’s connected on 19 of 26 shots from downtown in that span. That’s 73.1 percent.

Kulawiak buried 5 of 8 from behind the arc and scored 29 points Tuesday to lead Buckley to a 76-70 victory over Traverse City Christian in a matchup of 12-win boys basketball teams and a possible district preview.

“He’s a pretty special kid,” Buckley head coach Jared Milarch said. “Landon kind of exemplifies our team. He’s been the kid that was sitting on the bench and managing with Blair (Moss) and the kids at the state finals. He’s been by my side with all these guys, with his brother playing all the way through. So he’s not new to our team. He’s just one of the guys. His basketball IQ is phenomenal.”

TC Christian (12-3) had won nine in a row, while Buckley (13-3, 9-3 Northwest) extends its win streak to five.

Brock Broderick scored a game-high 30 for the Sabres as the two teams combined to hit 17 3-pointers, breaking out the long ball on Christian’s throwback night in which the Sabers wore knee-high, maroon-striped socks, plain jerseys that looked straight out of a rec league and white headbands. Plus all the Def Leppard and old-school rock the sound system could handle during warm-ups, just before Ryan Critchfield played an instrumental national anthem on saxophone.

Buckley led by 12 with 2:57 remaining, before TC Christian went on a run to cut the deficit to as little as four in the final minute on an NBA-range 3-pointer by Reece Broderick.

“We were up by a little bit and then right at the end there kind of fumbled it, the pressure kind of got to us,” Kulawiak said. “We went in the timeout and made adjustments. We ended up getting the dub, so that’s all that matters.”

Both teams have other big battles coming up shortly.

The Bears host Onekama on Friday in Northwest Conference play before traveling to undefeated Mesick (14-0) for a Saturday night tilt and playing Lake Leelanau St. Mary (13-3) next Tuesday on the road.

“That’s great to have our neighbors having a great season,” Milarch said. “It should be a big game Saturday. And we will be rooting for them in Division 3, no matter what happens Saturday.”

TC Christian brings in Division 4 No. 1-ranked McBain Northern Michigan Christian (15-0) Friday and hosts Lake Leelanau St. Mary next Thursday, with a road date with Kingsley in between.

TC Christian, Lake Leelanau and Buckley also happen to play in the same district, along with Suttons Bay, Leland and Forest Area.

The Sabres dropped a 20-point game to Lake Leelanau early in the season that TC Christian head coach Rene LaFreniere said the team just wasn’t ready for.

“We get play St. Mary again next week,” LaFreniere said. “I want to see where we’re at, see how far we’ve come. I don’t want to speak for Coach Milarch or Coach Barnowski, but I have to believe that neither one of them want to have to play us. That’s kind of our battle cry going in. Let’s be the team that nobody wants to play.”

TC Christian’s other two losses are against Buckley, by a combined nine points.

“That’ll be a tough one,” Kulawiak said of a possible district rematch with the Sabres. “They’re going to want to get us.”

Kyle Kazcanowski scored 14 points to go along with eight rebounds and four assists, all while guarding Brock Broderick most of the time. Tyler Milarch added 13 points (including 3 for 3 behind the arc) and four assists. Ty Breithaupt chipped in with 11 points and six boards, and Jackson Kulawiak had eight points, six rebounds and two blocks.

“They always play physical, and they always have five guys that can play,” Brock Broderick said of the Bears. “It never seems to be one guy scoring for them. It’s all spread around, and they’re big, too.”

TC Christian likely has to go through Buckley to win an elusive district championship. The Sabres haven’t won one in the school’s 25-year history, which prompted Brock Broderick to change his jersey number from zero to 25 for his senior year.

“That’s just good basketball,” Jared Milarch said of the two close matchups with the Sabres. “It was fun. ... We’re happy to hang in there and battle and get each other ready for districts and maybe beyond.”

Nathan Hresko scored 12 points for the Sabres, while Reece Broderick had nine, Ryan Sweetapple eight and Cole Wierda seven.

“We did not shoot well tonight,” LaFreniere said. “That’s a couple of games in a row where we’ve just struggled from the outside. Credit some of that to the defense, but we’re getting open looks that we knocked down all year and now we just picked a bad time to go into a slump.”