MANISTIQUE — Improvement wasn’t enough to get the Manistique boys over the hump Wednesday night as they dropped a 62-53 basketball game to Ishpeming.

Manistique led 27-25 at halftime and only trailed 41-40 after the third quarter of the Mid-Peninsula Conference matchup.

“I thought we played well,” Emeralds’ coach Ed Marietti told the Escanaba Daily Press. “We were doing a good job on the offensive boards. We did a way better job on the boards tonight than in some of our previous games. We just weren’t finishing.

“We were also 9 of 20 from the line, which isn’t going to cut it. Defensively, we did a decent job on their bigger guys.”

Darien Nichols led the Emeralds (1-13 overall, 0-10 M-PC) with 23 points. Jake Arnold added 18 points and 12 rebounds.

Dondre Yohe paced Ishpeming (7-6, 5-3) with 20 points. Hart Holmgren finished with 16 points and 11 boards.

“Both teams were able to run their offense,” Marietti said. “I think both teams were under 10 turnovers. We didn’t go full-court on defense until the end when we needed to.”

Ishpeming, which also won the JV game 66-21, visits Negaunee Friday, while Manistique goes to Westwood that same day.