Westwood’s Madelyn Koski, right, dribbles against Norway’s Ada VanHolla during a Mid-Peninsula Conference game Tuesday in Norway. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo by Adam Niemi)

NORWAY — Freshman Madelyn Koski’s deft free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter was enough to enable Westwood to hold on for a 54-53 road victory over previously undefeated Norway in a Mid-Peninsula Conference game on Tuesday night.

Koski made 13 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter as Norway rallied from 15 points down in the third quarter in an attempt to keep its undefeated season going. Koski finished with a game-high 28 points.

“For a 14-year-old girl to go 16 for 17 from the free-throw line is nothing short of incredible,” Westwood coach Kurt Corcoran said. “She’s playing with confidence. You’ve got to figure she’s 14 years old — in the first half of the season, she was basically an eighth-grader playing varsity basketball and she’s now really starting to come into her own, playing with some confidence stepping up to the line.”

The winning margin was provided by the Patriots’ Tessa Leece on the back end of a double-bonus free-throw situation with 5.9 seconds to go when it gave Westwood (11-8) a 54-50 advantage.

Norway took the ball past halfcourt and rifled a pass to Jada Lasater in the corner, who swished a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.

Westwood’s offensive production was a stark contrast to what it did Jan. 31 against the Knights. The Patriots failed to reach 20 points in a 41-17 thrashing.

“The first time we played them, they couldn’t hit any shots, it’s like they had a lid on their basket,” Norway coach Karli Kelly said. “I’ve been saying all along that they could be a spoiler. The score of Westwood doesn’t give you the story. Just because they missed the shots — they still had the shots last game — they didn’t go in. I told Kurt that.

“They made them tonight and we didn’t. The home-court curse, I guess, with him and I.”

Norway (18-1, 11-1 M-PC) staged its rally with a 25-point fourth quarter, including 15 points from Jordan Kraemer in her final home appearance. The Knights came to within five points and forced Westwood to play for possession and kill the clock. Instead, the Patriots committed a violation while trying to inbound the ball with 36.7 seconds left.

Corcoran is high on his team after winning four of its last five games. Koski scored 25 points in Monday’s win against Iron Mountain, including 17 of the team’s 21 in the first half. He said the Patriots are peaking as they prepare for the district opener next week in Iron River — against Norway.

“This is just a confidence builder for our girls, to know that they can play with them,” Corcoran said. “Tonight was a program-changer for us. I’ve been saying all along we were beating the weaker teams, but we weren’t beating the top-tier teams. In order for the community and these people to believe in what we’re doing, we needed to beat one of these top-tier teams. They were able to do that tonight.”

Kelly said Norway’s game was riddled with mistakes, but played better throughout the comeback.

“It took a little while. We had eight points in the third quarter,” Kelly said. “We rarely get under 15 points a quarter. That third quarter really hurt us. We only had two field goals. But that fourth quarter, they did well under pressure. They wanted to win.”

The Knights fell into foul trouble early on. Kraemer sat for a considerable time in the second quarter with two fouls. Britta Grayvold and Teidra Fuson fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“We started the game with different people in there because of foul trouble,” Kelly said. “That hurt us right off the bat. But they came back and they fought and we got a little sloppy, but the good news is we can play better than that. We have a week to prove that.”

Westwood won the JV game, 48-41.