Negaunee's Gerald Johnson (22) takes a shot while guarded by Iron Mountain's Joey Colavecchi (12) as the Mountaineers' Oskar Kangas (0) watches the play during their Mid-Peninsula Conference boys basketball game played Tuesday at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee. (Travis Nelson/Mining Journal photo)

NEGAUNEE — Ian Marttila waited in the corner for his opportunity, then knocked down a 3-pointer to give the Iron Mountain boys varsity basketball team a 23-16 lead in the second quarter over Negaunee.

What ensued was something he couldn’t have envisioned — a foul call in the post as the shot went up and back-to-back technical fouls on the Miners.

The Mountaineers got six straight free throws as a result, Marttila making four of them, and Iron Mountain outscored Negaunee 38-19 after that in a 65-35 rout at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium on Tuesday evening.

IM (6-2) took advantage of a tense second quarter that saw the Miners called for three technical fouls. That helped the visitors outscore Negaunee 19-6 in the frame to take a 32-18 halftime lead.

Mountaineers’ coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said he couldn’t really pinpoint what happened.

“It was like bang, bang, bang, I don’t even know what to say to that,” Johnson said. “It was unfortunate for Negaunee and fortunate for us. But that was just really weird, it was pretty close and then all of a sudden it was 10 (point differential) and we took advantage of whatever it was obviously, and we were able to capitalize on that.”

Negaunee (7-4) got off to a slow start but only trailed 13-12 after one quarter. The Miners trailed by 11 after the six straight IM free throws, and it was clear that the Miners were never the same after that.

The deficit ballooned to as many as 36 points late in the game, but the result was really decided in the second quarter.

In the aftermath of the shocking way the game turned out, Miners coach Dan Waterman boiled it down to the visitors working harder.

“The Iron Mountain kids came in and worked harder than the Negaunee kids did,” Waterman said. “(You have to) tip your hat to them.”

IM was led by its talented freshman trio of Marttila, Oskar Kangas and Gerald Sampoll Terres. Kangas dropped a game-high 27 points, making shots from seemingly every spot on the floor. Sampoll Torres scored nine in his third varsity game while handling the ball against Negaunee’s full-court pressure. Marttila had the key seven points to jump start Iron Mountain and finished with 10.

“Did I expect a 30-point game? No, but the kids played well,” Johnson said. “We told them, ‘You’re going to come into Negaunee, and you better get ready to take a punch. Are you going to take the punch or are you going to give the punch?’

“I thought once things started rolling our way, we kept the momentum and we never gave it back.”

Daily News staff contributed to this report.