MENOMINEE — Electricity coursed through a packed Menominee High School gym on Friday, as a raucous crowd gathered to watch the Menominee and Iron Mountain boys basketball teams lock horns for the MHSAA District 66 Championship for the fourth time in as many seasons.

And for the third consecutive postseason, the Maroons sent the Mountaineers packing with a 51-49 victory.

“Tonight was a rock fight between two teams,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said.

“It was a back-and-forth type of game and I’m just happy that we were able to make enough plays down the stretch to get the job done.”

Iron Mountain struggled from the floor, but for head coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson, the Mountaineers shooting percentage doesn’t tell the whole story.

“Well, a very difficult loss,” Johnson said. “The kids executed the game plan very well, in a 2-point game every possession matters. I know people will look at our 3-point shooting and free throw shooting percentages and say there is your ballgame, but we also got out-rebounded and had some mental errors that cost us.

“It is really unfortunate because the kids played excellently in many stretches of the game. It is difficult to go on the road again for a district final but our kids came ready to play and the start of the game certainly proved that, even when Menominee tied the game at the half, the kids bounced back and had a good third quarter to go up by three.”

Although Iron Mountain’s season has come to an end, Johnson is proud of his team, which ended with a 22-2 record.

“Proud of our kids and the season we lost two games by a total of four points that we certainly, in my eyes, should have won,” Johnson said. “Best of luck to our seniors Matthew (Colavecchi), Reece (Kangas) and Kaden (Sheldon). Our coaching staff will put the time in with the kids in the off season and will look forward to preparing for next year.”

Befitting of a matchup between two teams that know each other well, Friday’s District final came down to the waning seconds after Ian Marttila hit a reverse layup to put Iron Mountain ahead by two with 74 seconds left to play.

After Gerald Sampoll-Torress missed a pair of free throws that would have made it a two-possession game, Tanner Theuerkauf attacked the hoop for a reverse layup of his own, drawing a foul in the process before successful completing the and-1 to give Menominee a 50-49 edge with 47.4 remaining.

Eli Beal sank an insurance free throw with 3.5 ticks on the clock and Sampoll-Torres’s desperation heave clanged off the rim, as the Maroons held on for the two-point victory.

“I’m super proud of our kids for being able to come through because tonight was a great defensive performance by both teams and points were hard to come by,” Larson said. “We’re very fortunate that we were able to come out on top tonight.”

Iron Mountain (22-2) came out like gangbusters to begin the game, reeling off 14 unanswered points, all of them coming from close range, before Beal tipped in a putback bucket for Menominee’s first points of the evening.

Menominee (18-6) continued to claw back in the second quarter after a 3-pointer off Connor Coduti’s fingertips ignited a 9-0 run that allowed the Maroons to tie matters up at 26-26 entering halftime.

“We know that Iron Mountain is a very physical group and that they were going to come in and try to bring that physicality to impose their will on us, and for a quarter, they did just that,” Larson said. “I thought that our pressure was the counter to that in the second quarter, and it continued to bother Iron Mountain doing down the stretch.”

Iron Mountain regained the lead early in the third quarter thanks to a bucket by Oskar Kangas before pushing its cushion up to eight before Beal, Trevor Theuerkauf and Tanner Theuerkauf all scored to trim the Mountaineers’ lead to 41-38 entering the fourth quarter.

Beal knocked down a triple to give Menominee only its second lead of the night with 5:15 remaining until back-to-back layups from Martilla and Matthew Colavecchi put Iron Mountain back on top by two.

Trevor Theuerkauf responded with a layup to knot matters up at 47-47 with 3:03 left to play.

Kangas led all scorers with a game-high 15 points. Colavecchi was close behind with 14, Martilla pitched in 10, while Sampol-Toress and Brayden Kassin both added three.

Trevor Theuerkauf was Menominee’s leading scorer with 13 points with Tanner Theuerkauf nipping at his heels with 12. Beal tallied eight, Nathan Schultz picked up seven, Bardowski collected six and Coduti chipped in five.