Through three games this season, the Mountaineers are a work in progress offensively, but have been outstanding defensively, as they were in their 48-34 victory over Gladstone in a Mid-Peninsula Conference contest Monday at Iron Mountain High School.

As the Mountaineers prepare to travel to Ishpeming for a makeup game on Wednesday, they are only allowing 34 points per game.

While coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson is not ready to describe his team’s identity in defensive terms, he knows the importance of being tight on that side of the court.

“If you can’t play half-court defense, you’re not going to go very far,” Johnson said. “And we’ve always prided ourselves on our defense. Right now we’re just trying to find that scoring.”

Mountaineer junior guard Joey Colavecchi (12) drives baseline for a bucket against Gladstone on Monday. Colavecchi chipped in seven points in Iron Mountain’s 14-point win over its Mid-Peninsula Conference rival in what was the Mountaineers’ first home game of the 2021-22 season.

A pair of freshmen led the charge against the Braves (1-5). Point guard Ian Martilla paced the Mountaineers with 15 points, while center Oskar Kangas added 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Martilla scored 10 of his points in the final quarter as Iron Mountain (3-0) held off the Braves, who cut a 10-point halftime deficit to four with 4:30 left to play.

Martilla sank 4 of 4 free throws in the final minute to keep Gladstone at bay.

“Ian had a good game,” Johnson said. “He took the ball to the basket and he made his free throws, which was great to see.”

Gladstone held a 10-9 lead after the first quarter as the Mountaineers, in their first home game of the campaign, started slowly.

Iron Mountain’s previous game was played on Dec. 17 so perhaps the sluggish offensive start was understandable.

“When I’ve had veteran teams, we’ve come out (after the holiday break) pretty good,” Johnson explained. “But we have such a young team. We didn’t shoot the ball well. We had pretty good shots and I think if we could have hit a few more, we could have been up 15 to 18 points at halftime.”

As it were, the Mountaineers did take a 24-14 lead at the break after outscoring Gladstone 15-4 in the second quarter. Kangas scored six points to go with five points from James Chartier and four from Joey Colavecchi.

The teams played evenly in the third quarter before the Mountaineers spaced the game out late. Kangas finished things in style with a dunk to keep Iron Mountain unbeaten.

“I’m happy with the win,” Johnson said. “We’ll take it.”

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 247, or at jderoche@ironmountaindailynews.com