Copley powers Iron Mountain over Calumet
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IRON MOUNTAIN -- In what may have been a district game preview, Iron Mountain senior Emily Copley scored 25 points and hauled down 20 rebounds to lead the Mountaineers to a 64-55 victory over Calumet in their regular season and West PAC Conference finale Tuesday evening at Mountaineer Gymnasium.
Macy Linsenbigler recorded 19 points and 12 rebounds and Ashlyn Bal added 12 for Iron Mountain. Point guard Gerilis Sampoll Torres directed the Mountaineer attack with eight assists to go with 12 rebounds and four points. Bella Pickett and Alysia Wood each scored two points in the victory.
"We played great team ball and had great team chemistry the whole game," said IM coach Karen Ellis, who added that Copley's performance was her "best ever."
Iron Mountain and its formidable forward duo of Copley and Linsenbigler were clicking from the opening tip. The 6-foot Copley scored eight points in the first quarter and the 5-9 Linsenbigler added seven to help the Mountaineers take a 19-18 lead.
The Mountaineers stayed sharp in the second quarter when they outscored the Copper Kings 18-5 to build a 37-23 lead at intermission. Linsenbigler totaled nine in the quarter, while Copley added five, including a 3-pointer.
Calumet (11-11) came out of the break with a more aggressive manner and scored 15 points in the third, but the Mountaineers kept pace with 14. The Copper Kings threatened a bit in the fourth quarter and put up 17 points, but Iron Mountain stayed poised for the most part and kept Calumet at bay.
"We started to rush the offense a couple of times but were able to regroup," Ellis said.
Calumet's Caitlyn Strom led all scorers with 28 points, including 18 in the second half.
Now it's on to the district tournament for both teams. Iron Mountain will kick off Division 3 District 65 at home against West Iron County (11-11) on Monday, March 4. The winner will face Calumet in one semifinal on Wednesday, March 6, while Westwood and Gwinn will play in the other.
Ellis is hopeful her team will continue its recent run of play.
"I'm proud of the team for how much they've improved," she said.
The Mountaineers finished the regular season with a 7-15 mark but went 4-4 in February after starting the campaign with a 3-11 record.
FLIVVERS 45, NORDICS 31
KINGSFORD -- Trailing at the end of the first quarter, the Kingsford girls varsity basketball team (10-11, 3-5) rallied back to beat North Dickinson 45-31 in Flivver Gym on Tuesday.
"It was a nice way for our seniors to wrap it up at home," Flivvers head coach Jon Lorenzoni said. "Mia (Counter) stepped it up and hit some timely shots. Aliana (Kowalski), man I don't know what else I could ask from her. She just does so much of everything."
Despite losing, Nordics head coach Kirk Mattson was proud of his players efforts this season.
"I thought we played very well on the defensive side," Mattson said. "We gave up a few buckets late in the fourth quarter that were untimely for us, but the effort was there all night and I am pretty happy with that. I saw our team do some nice things offensively and defensively to build on for the district game on Monday.
"This group of kids work hard and are a pleasure to coach, and this girls program has a bright future."
North Dickinson (held a 6-4 advantage after one quarter. But, the Nordics' lead didn't last long as the Flivvers found their offensive flow in the second.
Kingsford scored 13 points in the frame and took a 17-11 lead into halftime. Alaina Kowalski scored four points in the second while Anna Bortolini added five.
The Flivvers outscored North Dickinson 26-20 in the final two quarters and locked up the win.
Alaina Kowalski led Kingsford with 19 points.
The Flivvers also received contributions from Abby Przeslakowski (8 points), Mia Counter (8 points) and Bortolini (8 points).
North Dickinson received contributions from Jessica Harwath (6 points), Raina Ledzian (8 points), Mya Grunlund (6 points), Ava Oman (2 points), Aunika Lindholm (6 points), Hailee Siegler (2 points) and Cami Sleeter (1 point).
LADY TROJANS 75, JETS 39
POWERS -- Forest Park sophomore Elsie Williams exploded for 29 points and the Lady Trojans ran away from host North Central in the third quarter to post a 75-39 Skyline Central Conference triumph Tuesday night.
With the victory, Forest Park finished its regular-season campaign with an 8-14 record overall and a 4-4 mark in the SCC-Small Division, good for second place behind Carney-Nadeau (6-2 in the SCC).
Williams sank 10 of 21 shots from the field, including six 3-pointers. Vienna Price recorded 14 points on 7 of 9 shooting, Jessie Loehr posted eight points, three rebounds and three steals, Dalaney Wagner finished with seven points and three rebounds, Kaidince Woollard had six points and three steals, Charlie Larson chipped in with five points and four rebounds and Ava Fischer added two points.
The Lady Trojans burst out to a 21-12 lead after the first quarter and extended that to 35-22 at halftime.
Forest Park put the game away with a 29-8 third quarter run to head into the final period with a 64-30 advantage.
Forest Park, which won three of its last four regular-season games, travels to Baraga on Wednesday, March 6 for a Division 4 District 99 semifinal contest against the second-ranked Vikings (18-4).
WYKONS 35, BULLDOGS 29
HANCOCK -- Scoring was at a premium Tuesday night at Hancock High School where the West Iron County Wykons prevailed over the Bulldogs 35-29 in the final night of West Pac Conference play.
With the win, West Iron finished tied for second in the conference with Calumet at 5-6. Houghton won the league with a 7-3 mark.
Keyed by an 11-6 second-quarter run, the Wykons (11-11) stayed in front of Hancock narrowly but consistently the rest of the way.
"Defensive battle all night," WIC Eric Shamion said. "Our defense was good, but we need to be more efficient on offense."
West Iron finished the game with 13 field goals, including one 3-pointer, and 6 of 10 from the free throw line.
On the other hand, the Bulldogs sank just six field goals, half of which were triples, and connected on 8 of 13 from the foul stripe.
Hancock (9-11) took a 10-9 lead after the first quarter, but the Wykons crept out in front 20-16 at the break.
In the third quarter, both offenses went into a deep freeze with WIC "outscoring" Hancock 4-3.
Shamion kept a sense of humor about the whole thing.
"Both teams tore up the nets in the third quarter!" he said.
The Wykons, who finished their regular season with six wins in their final eight games, stayed in front down the stretch with an 11-10 fourth quarter.
WIC's Danica Shamion led all scorers with 16 points.
Other scorers for the Wykons included Seanna Stine with six, Kaitlyn Smith with five, Sidney Storti with four and Julia Swenski and Haiden Gill with two each.
Emery Chynoweth paced Hancock with 12 points.
The Wykons head into Division 3 District 65 action Monday, March 4 when they travel to Iron Mountain to take on the Mountaineers (7-15). West Iron won the only regular-season matchup 47-40 back on Dec. 5.
Daily News sports writer Jerry DeRoche and sports editor Sean Chase contributed to this report.