Kingsford junior guard Gavin Grondin (20) drives in for a layup and slides between Gladstone’s Nick Matthews (14) and Kaden Gibbs (12) while picking up a foul on Wednesday during District 33 action at Flivver Gym. (Terry Raiche photo)

KINGSFORD — With the knowledge that they were scheduled to host the Division 2 District 33 tournament this season, the Kingsford Flivvers were eagerly anticipating Wednesday night.

And when the Flivvers finally took the court against the Gladstone Braves in the district semifinal, they were almost ravenous with anticipation and it showed. The Division 1-3 third-ranked Flivvers stormed out to a 21-0 lead in the first seven minutes of the game and never looked back in their 56-30 rout of the Braves.

Senior post Jacob Markworth scored 10 of his career-high 23 points in the opening period and the Kingsford defense put all sorts of heat on the Gladstone ball handlers to establish control of the game from the tip.

Both Markworth and coach Dan Olkkonen pointed to the Flivver defense as the spark that lit the flame for the whole performance.

“It was a great team win,” said Markworth, who also sent down his second career dunk late in the fourth quarter. “It was just defense. Defense was harped on the entire week.”

Kingsford’s Jack Kriegl (4) drives to the basket and lifts a shot over Gladstone’s Kaden Gibbs (12) and Luke Bracket (3) on Wednesday at Flivver Gym. (Terry Raiche photo)

Specifically for Wednesday night’s game, Olkkonen and his staff wanted to keep the ball away from Gladstone senior point guard Kaden Gibbs in the backcourt. To do that, Olkkonen employed sophomore point guard Jack Kriegl and junior forward Morgan Sleik and the pair executed the plan to near perfection.

Gladstone committed six first-quarter turnovers in the opening quarter and Kingsford was off and running.

“That was a great start for us,” Olkkonen said. “The guys bought into what we wanted to do. We had the plan of really trying to deny Gibbs from bringing the ball up the floor and make other guys do that.

“I thought Jack Kriegl and Morgan Sleik did a great job. And as you look over the game, it disrupted them a little bit in what they wanted to do on offense.”

Offensively, Kingsford established Markworth around the basket in the first minute of the game. As the Braves tried to double-team the ball handler coming off Markworth’s high-ball screen, the senior center slid to the hoop and accepted perfect feeds from Kriegl or Gavin Grondin for layups.

The Flivvers (18-4) were also able to free up Markworth on baseline screen, and the burly post did the rest with a variety of layups and jump hooks.

“When you’ve got a guy like Gavin Grondin, (the other team) has to do whatever they can to stop him, so everything opened up for me and Morgan,” Markworth said. “And it’s just hats off to those (Grondin and Kriegl).”

“He gave us a real spark,” Olkkonen said of Markworth.

“He was poised, he was comfortable out there and he didn’t do anything that would have harmed our team.”

Markworth was also assigned the task of holding Gladstone’s 6-4 senior Drake Johnson in check and he responded to that challenge as well. Johnson scored just six points, five coming late in the fourth quarter.

The Braves (10-14) never got on track offensively as a whole. Gibbs finally broke the ice with a pair of free throws with 1:21 to play in the first quarter.

Freshman Lonnie Davey then sank two more about a minute later, but the Braves found themselves down 21-4 after the opening period.

The Kingsford attack slowed some in the second frame, but Gladstone was unable to find enough offense to make a comeback. Senior Nick Matthews recorded the Braves’ first field goal of the game at the 6:05 mark of the second quarter, but Gladstone only posted three free throws for the remainder of the half and trudged to the locker room down 30-9 at the break.

“I think we did a good job of switching out when we had to, but we really wanted to stay home and stop Gibbs from driving because they want to do downhill stuff,” Olkkonen said, referring to the execution of his defense. “Jack did a great job and we wanted to stay on their 3-point shooters, too.”

For the game, Gladstone connected on just three 3-point shots, one each from seniors Luke Bracket and Nick Matthews and the other from sophomore Owen Gereau.

Additionally, the Flivvers held Gibbs, the driving force of the Braves’ team, to just five points, all on free throws.

The Flivvers saved some of their fun for the last two minutes when Markworth broke free after a deflected pass by Owen Olkkonen for a dunk and Sleik worked himself for a slam off a screen-roll play.

Meanwhile, first-year Gladstone coach Jake Kiesby was able to individually take out his five seniors – Gibbs, Matthews, Johnson, Bracket and Thomas Tackman — for a much-deserved applause from the Braves’ fans in attendance.

“Those five seniors battled through adversity,” he said. “For the majority of the year, we’ve had six active players. And every day they showed up to practice and worked to get better.

“Most of them didn’t get subbed out ever. They had to play through everything. The adversity they faced from day one to now was incredible and they handled it like men. And I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Other scorers for Gladstone included Matthews with a team-high seven points, Davey with four, Bracket and Gereau with three each and Evan Woelffer with two.

Aside from Markworth’s output, Grondin posted 15 points, Joey Weber scored eight points as replacement for Cardel Morton (out with illness), Sleik finished with four, Gavin Trevillian scored three, Kriegl recorded two and Jaxon Buckley hit a late free throw

On the other side, the Flivvers will play for their second consecutive district championship against Escanaba tonight at Flivver Gymnasium.

The Eskymos defeated Negaunee 51-48 in the other semifinal on Wednesday.

Kingsford swept the season series with Escanaba, winning handily in both games. The Flivvers won the first game 70-28 on Dec. 8 in Kingsford and captured the second 72-42 on Feb. 2 in Escanaba.

After three months of practices, road trips and games, the Flivvers finally get a shot at what they’ve wanted all season — a chance to celebrate a district championship in front of their own fans.

“It’s exciting,” Olkkonen said. “We were happy that the districts were here.

“We’ve been talking about that all year and now we get that opportunity.”