Ishpeming's Madigan Johns takes a shot in a game at Iron Mountain on Thursday. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Adam Niemi)

By ADAM NIEMI

Iron Mountain Daily News

IRON MOUNTAIN — Marissa Maino led Ishpeming with 23 points en route to a 78-46 win over Iron Mountain on Thursday.

The Hematites’ Mid-Peninsula Conference win was bolstered by a 27-point second quarter. Ishpeming (7-1) knocked down four 3-pointers in that quarter to help build a 38-24 halftime lead.

IM struggled against Ishpeming’s defense all game long. The Mountaineers (2-5, 1-3 M-PC) committed 27 turnovers as the Hematites changed defenses between man, trap and full-court press.

“We went to a little bit of a zone press instead of man-to-man,” Ishpeming coach Ryan Reichel said. “They were breaking it pretty easily. From there, we were able to create some points for us, generate some offense and they weren’t able to score.”

When Maino had a big quarter, Ishpeming did as well. In the second and fourth quarters, when the Hematites scored a combined 53 points, Maino scored 17 of them. Reichel said she didn’t start so she could enter the game fresh after Iron Mountain started to wear down in the first quarter.

“She’s our scoring spark plug,” Reichel said. “We try to take the model of what the (NBA’s San Antonio) Spurs do with Manu Ginobili, being able to come off the bench and score buckets. She comes in just when the defense starts to get a little tired. She can score a lot of buckets really fast.”

Ishpeming came out of halftime with a sense of urgency.

“We try to challenge each other,” Reichel said.

Ishpeming also won the JV game 60-21.