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Gwinn loses heartbreaker, 61-59

Journal Sports Staff

Gwinn’s Kia Evans, top, and Iron Mountain’s Brianna Hoffman wrestle for the ball during their high school girls basketball game played at the Mountaineers gym on Thursday. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Theresa Proudfit)

IRON MOUNTAIN — A putback off a missed shot by Brianna Hoffman lifted Iron Mountain to a 61-59 victory over visiting Gwinn in a high school girls basketball game played Thursday night.

The Mountaineers built a 33-25 halftime lead that expanded to 10 points by early in the fourth quarter.

But the Modeltowners fought back to erase the deficit and actually take a 59-57 lead with about 1:05 left when Brenna Bruce hit a 3-pointer from the corner.

“We ran our offense and the got the shots we wanted,” Gwinn coach Ben Olsen said about the comeback.

Bruce subsequently missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free-throw situation and IM’s Riley Poupore took the rebound and drove the length of the floor for a layup that tied the score 59-59 with 20 to 25 seconds remaining.

After a missed shot by Gwinn, the Mountaineers grabbed another rebound with about 6 seconds left and missed a shot that Hoffman rebounded and put back through the hoop as the buzzer went off.

While that was Hoffman’s only basket of the night as she finished with three points, Poupore was the big star of the night, putting up game highs of 30 points and 16 rebounds.

“She’s a sophomore who played on the varsity as a freshman last year,” Olsen said. “She’s a guard-forward and plays with a ton of energy. She was just everywhere and getting a lot of her own rebounds on missed shots in the first half.”

Kia Evans led the Modeltowners (0-3) with 19 points, while Brooke Mannor added 13 and Bruce 11. Teammate Hailey Hill pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.

Gwinn also made 18 of 22 free throws, a 82 percent success rate.

The Modeltowners, who won the JV game 42-31, travel to Houghton for a game Monday night.

Ishpeming 76,

Gladstone 46

At Ishpeming, the Hematites sizzled on offense, sinking 78 percent from the field (29 of 37) and 91 percent from the free-throw line (10 of 11).

But Ishpeming coach Ryan Reichel credited a player who didn’t score for establishing the complexion of the game.

“Chloe Sjoholm just changed the game for us,” he said. “She’s like a ‘Swiss army knife.’ We put her in the game with about five minutes to go in the second quarter and we went on a 14-2 run.”

The Hematites only led 21-19 at the time before going into halftime ahead 35-21.

Sjoholm finished with a team-high eight rebounds along with four steals.

But nine other Ishpeming players scored, led by Madigan Johns with 19 points and Khora Swanson and Marissa Maino with 13 each.

“We try to win by having multiple players put the ball in the hoop,” Reichel said.

IHS expanded its lead in the third quarter to take a 54-29 lead into the fourth quarter.

Maddy Ahlgren paced Gladstone with 11 points.

The Hematites, who also won the JV game 61-16, are off until Thursday when they host Escanaba.

Norway 63,

Manistique 30

At Norway, the Knights turned a 22-11 lead after one quarter into a huge 43-16 advantage at halftime.

“They came out in a … full-court press and really gave us problems in the first half,” Emeralds coach Dave WInkel said, noting that his team committed 17 turnovers before halftime. “Everything just kind of snowballed on us. Our execution was way better in the second half.”

Mady Kraatz paced Manistique (0-3 overall, 0-2 Mid-Peninsula Conference) with nine points, while Britta Grayvold and Jada Lasatter scored 13 points apiece for the Knights (4-0, 2-0).

Norway won the JV game 57-36. Manistique hosts Westwood on Thursday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee with contributions from the Escanaba Daily Press. Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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