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Negaunee Miners earn at least a share of Mid-Peninsula Conference boys basketball title with win over Iron Mountain, 73-68

Negaunee’s Dre' Tuominen, left, takes a jump shot with Iron Mountain defender Jaden Vicenzi in his face on Tuesday night at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium. (Journal photo by Jess Makela)

NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee Miners boys basketball team claimed at least a share of the Mid-Peninsula Conference title with a 73-68 win over the Iron Mountain Mountaineers on Tuesday.

Negaunee had to work hard for its piece of the league title, winning at Norway and beating the Mountaineers at home on back-to-back nights.

“It’s a big thing for us,” Negaunee coach Dan Waterman said. “It takes a lot of heart and guts to have done what these guys have accomplished this season.

“We gained a lot of experience by playing those two teams to get ready for the postseason. We’re going to take a couple days rest, look at some film, and work on sharpening our offense and getting better on defense.”

The Miners, who open Class C district tournament play at Gwinn next Wednesday, lost to the Knights and IM earlier in the season to leave themselves the predicament they were in this week.

Negaunee, which improved to 16-4 and 10-2 in the M-PC, will win the league title outright if Ishpeming can win at home against Norway on Thursday night.

On Tuesday with two minutes left in the first quarter, Negaunee senior Dre Tuominen made a basket to reach the 1,000-point mark for his career while also increasing his team’s lead to 18-15.

“Those are the most unselfish 1,000 points,” Waterman said. “He moves the ball so well and he’s all about winning. I’m super happy for Dre.”

After Tuominen’s milestone basket, Iron Mountain senior Carson Wonders responded with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 18 with a minute left, though Negaunee got back a 20-18 advantage after one.

Iron Mountain (16-3, 9-3) built its biggest lead at 27-22 three minutes before halftime, but Negaunee answered with a 6-0 run to retake the lead. NHS freshman Jason Waterman sank a triple at the halftime buzzer to give the Miners a 31-30 edge.

Senior Night was special for the Miners as seniors led Negaunee in scoring — Tuominen had 37 points, Trent Bell 17 and Jacob Ennett 11. Tuominen and Bell also grabbed 10 rebounds apiece.

Freshman Marcus Johnson had 42 points to lead the Mountaineers.

“He had a really good shooting night,” Iron Mountain head coach Harvey Johnson said. “Our guys found him and he kept on making shots.”

“He made some huge shots for them,” Waterman said. “He’s just a freshman, so tonight speaks volumes to how tough he is. It’s scary to think that he has three years left.”

Negaunee opened the second half with a 5-0 run when Ennett made a 3-pointer and a putback basket to increase the Miners’ lead to 36-30 just 50 seconds in.

Johnson kept the Mountaineers in the game in the third quarter by scoring all 12 of IM’s points.

Negaunee built its lead up to 52-42 going into the fourth, then got it to 12 when Bell scored to make it 56-44 a minute into the fourth.

IM spent the rest of the game trying to whittle down that lead, and with two minutes left, Wonders hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to four.

But Tuominen put the game out of reach, scoring 16 of Negaunee’s 21 fourth-quarter points, including a perfect 14 of 14 from the free throw line.

The Miners were able to hold the Northern Michigan University-bound Wonders to just 12 points along with a team-high five rebounds.

“I think Trent’s length changed the way he played,” Waterman said. “Our help defense stepped up and made it difficult for Carson.”

Negaunee won the JV game, 45-29.

Email Julie Goldberg at sports@miningjournal.net.

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