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Munising boys top Rapid River to win district title

By JUSTIN ST. OURS

Escanaba Daily Press

GARDEN CORNERS — The Munising boys’ basketball team refused to be held down here tonight. In a comeback win, the Mustangs overtook the Rapid River Rockets 53-38 to become Division 4 district champions.

The third-ranked Rockets led 25-17 at the beginning of the third quarter. However, the Mustangs came out with increased determination. Defensively, they smothered Rapid River for the quarter, holding the Rockets to just two points in the period.

On the back of a re-energized offense, Munising led 36-27 at the end of the quarter. With their defense successfully supressing Rapid River, the fourth-ranked Mustangs (15-3) ran away with it.

The first quarter was controlled by the Rockets. Tyler Sundling put Rapid River on the board less than 20 seconds in.

Josh Huotari trimmed Munising’s deficit to 6-5 with a lay-up and free throw with 4:51 left in the first quarter.

Rapid River went on a 9-0 scoring run to push its advantage to 15-5 with a little over two minutes left. The Rockets (14-6) led 19-10 at the end of the first quarter.

Munising was first on the board in the second quarter with a triple from Austin Killips 43 seconds in. Both teams struggled on offense until the Munising’s Clayton Smith sunk a shot at 3:59. He scored another 30 seconds later to cut the deficit to 19-17.

Rapid River added six answered points in the last two minutes to lead 25-17 at the half.

“We went into the locker room down eight,” Huotari said. “That’s when we knew we had to kick it into gear.”

The second quarter was characterized by the problems Rapid River faced in the remainder of the game. The Rockets were stopped from getting inside and were forced to take outside shots.

“We didn’t really stick to our game plan,” Mustangs’ coach Terry Kienitz said.

“Rapid’s defense forced us to. We forced too much on offense. Defensively, I thought we did okay. After the first quarter, we focused on what we needed to do.”

The Mustangs came out in the third quarter with a different attitude. They went on a 15-0 run for the first six minutes of the quarter.

“We got a little too comfortable with our lead,” Rockets’ coach Rich Poma said. “You have to come out firing and with intensity, and they did that.”

Tony DeMars scored the Rockets’ first points for the quarter on a free throw with 1:19 left.

The Mustangs led 36-27 at the end of the third quarter.

Munising went on an 11-0 run in the fourth that gave them a 47-27 lead with 5:23 left in the game.

20 seconds later, a triple from the Rockets’ Vincent Micheau put them on the board for the quarter. Sundling sank another triple with 4:14 left to cut their deficit 47-33.

Rapid River ran into foul trouble for the remainder of the game, and the Mustangs went 5-of-13 from the line.

“I can’t really think of too much right now,” the Mustangs’ Jesse Matson said. “I’m just too happy.”

Kienitz said they focused on the third quarter.

“The second half was so important,” he said. “We know how important the third quarter is. The entire team responded to me. It was a very good team effort today.”

The Mustangs were led by Matson with 16 points and Huotari added 11.

Tyler Sundling was the Rockets leading scorer with 19 points.

Munising will face face Dollar Bay in the regional semifinal Tuesday in Negaunee at 6 p.m.

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