On the other hand, the Nordics entered the contest winless in their first five games.

The Skyline Central Conference game went as expected, as North Central had little trouble in their 67-23 victory over North Dickinson at Carl F. Lemin Gymnasium in Felch.

“Usually when we come up here, we play flat,” North Central coach Mike Malone said. “We’ve never traveled well to North Dickinson. … But tonight, they played up. They came out with fire, they executed. We shot the ball well in the first half, and I think that brought the intensity level up and I think it stayed up the whole game.”

Senior Bradey Anderson, in particular, came out smoking with three 3-pointers in the first quarter to propel North Central took a 22-4 lead. Anderson finished with 16 points to lead the Jets, who also got 14 points from Connor Florenski, and 10 each from Luke Gorzinski and Collin Cordy.

North Dickinson junior guard Colin LaFave (20) fires a shot against North Central’s Jaden Walters (34) and Connor Florenski (0) on Monday at Carl F. Lewin Gymnasium. The Nordics fell to the Jets 67-23 in the Skyline Central Conference matchup.

Meanwhile, North Dickinson coach Chris Mattson didn’t think his group was ready to go.

“For whatever reason we came out real flat,” Mattson began. “We didn’t play very well and a very good team exposed us. Overall, they just did everything better than we did and the score is an indication of that.”

Maybe the most impressive part of the Jets’ performance was their unselfishness. Blessed with athletes and scorers across the lineup, North Central shared the ball extremely well and consistently moved the ball from side to side and hit the open man.

“We have a bunch of different guys who can score from different places on the floor, but they love sharing the sugar,” Malone said.

“The ball did not stick in their hands,” Mattson commented. “Very unselfish play. On our side, the ball stuck. We didn’t play very well as a team.”

The bright spot for the Nordics was the play of sophomores Steven Holmes and Antonio Inglese.

Holmes scored the first four points of the second quarter, added another hoop later in the frame and finished with a team-high 10 points. Meanwhile, Inglese showed some scoring spark and finished with eight.

Still, the Jets had too much for the Nordics. North Central built a 43-13 lead at the halftime break, then held a 60-17 advantage after three as the running clock was instituted.

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