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Dramatic finish delivers regional title to St. Ignace over Calumet, 60-57, in Marquette

Linnie Gustafson of St. Ignace, front right, and Calumet's Lea Bjorn, front left, vie for the ball during their Class C girls basketball regional championship game played at Marquette Senior High School on Thursday night. (Ironwood Daily Globe photo by Jason Juno)

MARQUETTE — Speechless, they stood together and cried once again. 

It was almost the exact same scene as a year ago, when the teary-eyed Calumet Copper Kings experienced a gut-wrenching defeat and had to watch the St. Ignace Saints gleefully accept their medals and trophy after a dramatic regional championship played at Marquette High School. 

Just like last year, Calumet and St. Ignace engaged in a four-quarter, back-and-forth affair that went down to the final possession. And just like last year, St. Ignace got the best of Calumet, winning 50-47 Thursday night in Marquette for the Class C regional title.

“It was a great basketball game,” Calumet head coach Jeff Twardzik said. “Last year, I said that was the best basketball game I was ever a part of, and this is right there with it.” 

A year ago, it was St. Ignace’s Natalee Lee making the game-winning free throw with 1.1 seconds remaining for a 53-52 victory.

On Thursday, Calumet experienced the heartbreaking defeat when sophomore Celia Kiilunen was forced to throw up a desperation 30-foot 3-point shot from the right wing with just four seconds remaining.

From behind Calumet’s bench, the shot appeared like it had a chance to be banked in — but it was too strong off the glass and St. Ignace celebrated after securing the rebound.

“We were going to try to get it to Amber Johnson, but we made it clear that whoever (got the ball) needed to get a high screen immediately,” Twardzik said. “We got the ball over to (Celia), and I thought she had a good look.”

The Saints (22-2) escaped having to face overtime after their free throw woes allowed Calumet to shoot a game-tying 3. St. Ignace was just 13 for 28 at the free-throw line and miss all four chances in the final minute with a 50-45 lead. 

“That was getting a little frustrating,” St. Ignace head coach Dorene Ingalls said. “They were just all jacked up and excited and their energy was too high. They needed to step back a little bit, but that’s something we can work on.”

Calumet senior Hailey Wickstrom closed her career with eight points and 15 rebounds. She scored her final points for Calumet on a putback to cut St. Ignace’s lead to 50-47 with 11 seconds remaining. Following a timeout, Calumet was able to force a jump ball, and with the possession arrow in the Copper Kings’ favor, they were able to get one last chance to force overtime after St. Ignace made no attempt to foul while up three. 

“We knew coming in it was going to be a battle,” Ingalls said. “We had to match their intensity. It wasn’t pretty at times, we had a lot of turnovers and missed free throws, but in games like this you have to make gritty plays to overcome.”

While this game featured every bit the drama as last year’s contest, this one was not as clean and as easy on the eyes as the previously well played game between the two programs.

Throughout the night, St. Ignace struggled with Calumet’s aggressive trapping out of its halfcourt 3-2 zone defense and turned the ball over 21 times. On the other side, Calumet (16-6) committed 17 turnovers versus St. Ignace’s full-court pressure. 

“There some times in the game where we were just frantic with the basketball and throwing it away,” Twardzik said. “Just had to talk a couple times about settling down. 

“You gotta give (St. Ignace) credit. Their pressure got to us at times, and they were shuffling (players) in and out and that starts to wear on you.”

With Calumet’s length of Wickstrom and junior Brooke Kariniemi down low, St. Ignace struggled to develop any success in the paint, allowing Calumet to take a 21-13 lead after a fast-break layup by Johnson with 3:32 left in the second quarter. 

At that point, St. Ignace was just 4 of 23 (17 percent) from the field, though 3 of 10 on 3s. But St. Ignace sophomore Madison Olsen came in and hit two corner triples, while senior Jade Edelman made one free throw and completed a three-point play to give the Saints a 10-0 run for a 23-21 advantage. 

But no Saint was better from 3-point range than senior Jordan Belleville, who finished with 13 points and drilled her fourth trey on six attempts to give her team a 40-33 lead. St. Ignace junior Keshia Davis added two free throws for the Saints’ biggest lead, 42-33, with 7:10 remaining. 

“Jordan has had multiple games where she’s had three to six 3s at a time,” Ingalls said. “She was sick on Tuesday, had the flu and wasn’t quite herself.

“Tonight, she had her bounce back which was awesome. In practice today in shootaround, she was really looking good on her 3s.” 

Junior Niina Anderson led Calumet with 12 points and sparked the comeback by scoring off an inbounds play before knocking down two free throws to trim St. Ignace’s advantage to 46-43 with 3:09 left. However, a minute later she fouled out, and junior Lea Bjorn followed suit and fouled out with under two minutes remaining. Bjorn finished with 11 points.

“Obviously it was really hard to lose Lea Bjorn and Niina, especially with Niina bringing the ball up 90 percent of the time for us,” Twardzik said.

Larson converted two free throws with 1:33 remaining to close Calumet’s deficit to 47-45. 

Junior Linnie Gustafson had 14 points to lead the scoring for the Saints, who advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinal against Maple City Glen Lake (22-3) in Gaylord. 

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