Forest Park defenders Matthew Showers (4) and Kevin Giuliani (10) try to slow down Norway’s Michael Peterson (20) who nearly loses the ball while driving to the basket during the Knight’s home win Monday in the MHSAA Division 4 District 99 opener. (Dennis Mansfield/Daily News photo)

Whether that’s true or not is debatable, but that idea did not apply to the Norway Knights on Monday evening in their MHSAA Division 4 District 99 opener as they knocked off Forest Park 44-26 in Norway.

The Knights and Trojans engaged in a low-scoring, hard-fought first half before Norway opened up the game in the third quarter to increase its 15-13 lead to 29-19 after three.

“Both teams started off slow offensively,” Norway coach Jeff Gallino said. “I thought (Forest Park) Coach (Jason) Price has his boys well prepared and they played extremely hard.

“We had a nice third quarter to gain some momentum. I thought our help defense was better tonight.”

Norway senior guard Nolan Amundson (14) pounds the ball in between his hands in celebration of the Knights’ 44-26 tournament win over visiting Forest Park in district tournament action Monday night. The victory sets up a clash with fourth-ranked North Central on Wednesday in Powers for the right to play for the district championship on Friday. (Dennis Mansfield/Daily News photo)

Nolan Amundson scored six of his game-high 18 points in that third quarter, while Michael Peterson recorded five of his 13 points.

The Trojans (9-12) fought back from an early 8-2 deficit to pull within one early in the second quarter. Then Forest Park freshman Kevin Giuliani hit a shot at the first-half buzzer to pull his team within two at the break.

From there, the Knights began to score a bit more efficiently and locked in defensively to pull away from Forest Park, which they had defeated 60-31 on Jan. 6 and 47-27 on Feb. 15.

Alex Ortman added 10 points for Norway, while Giuliani and Rintala paced Forest Park with eight each. Sam McKissack added seven for the Trojans.

With their victory, the fifth-ranked Knights will play fourth-ranked North Central on Wednesday in Powers for the right to play for the district championship on Friday. In their regular-season matchup, the Jets defeated the Knights 52-36 in Powers.

C-N tops ND in district opener

CARNEY — The North Dickinson boys basketball team started well in its MHSAA Division 4 District 99 opener at Carney-Nadeau on Monday night. The Nordics took a four-point lead into the second quarter and held that advantage until the Wolves turned the game in their favor and went on to a 59-43 victory to end North Dickinson’s 2021-22 season.

“We had a nice first quarter,” ND coach Chris Mattson said of the quarter which ended with the Nordics up 12-8. “Defensively, we were locked in and we made some shots.

“We were ahead by four or five points most of the second, but Carney did a good job of forcing turnovers for two or three minutes and went up seven.”

Sophomore Antonio Inglese got North Dickinson (3-18) off to the lead by scoring seven points of his team-high 15 points in the opening period. But the Nordics offense was eventually affected by the Wolves’ pressure.

“We didn’t handle the pressure very well and just got sped up,” Mattson said.

Carney-Nadeau held a 27-20 lead entering the third quarter and the teams played to a standstill in that period. North Dickinson remained in the hunt in the fourth, but fell behind by 10 halfway through and the Nordics were forced to foul down the stretch.

The game ended in a memorable way for the Nordics and their coach, as Mattson was able to put his five seniors on the floor — including his injured son Maximus, Colt Glasheen, Nathan Graham, Monte Sleeter and Zach Larson.

“It was a sad moment, but it meant a lot to me personally,” the coach began. “It was very emotional for me to talk to this group of kids. I’ve been a big fan of theirs and I’ve loved watching them enjoy the game.

“Max had a nice career. He was the glue to this team and it was difficult without him, especially early on. I give him credit, he handled missing the season better than I could have.”

Maximus Mattson did record a bucket in his brief appearance in the game, as did Glasheen. Aside from Inglese’s output, sophomore Steven Holmes added 10 points for the Nordics.

WIC’s difficult season ends

MANISTIQUE — The West Iron County boys basketball team endured a rugged season in 2021-22 and that campaign ended with a 67-37 Division 3 District 66 loss at Manistique on Monday evening.

The Wykons (1-19) stayed in the game in the opening half, trailing the Emeralds 18-10 after one quarter and 33-22 at halftime. But Manistique (8-13) came out of the locker room in third quarter firing, scoring 23 points to extend to a 56-28 lead heading down into the fourth.

Matthew Dutcher led West Iron with 27 points. He scored eight in the first quarter, six in both the second and third quarters and then seven in the fourth to record his career-high.

West Iron, which only had three scorers, received 10 points from Elijah Oberlin and three from Daniel James.

Jerry DeRoche can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 244, or at jderoche@ironmountaindailynews.com.