Ishpeming’s Mariah Austin, front, prepares for a layup attempt as Munising’s Frankie Mattson defends on Wednesday night at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee. (Journal photo by Rachel Oakley)

NEGAUNEE — Another team’s dream season has come to an end at the hands of the Ishpeming Hematites.

The Hematites boys team ended Negaunee’s big year in the first round last season and now the girls squad has done the same to Munising as it took down the previously unbeaten Mustangs 79-62.

Khora Swanson led Ishpeming with 17 points, while Mariah Austin and Marissa Maino both had 16.

Munising’s Marissa Immel led all scorers with 25 points, while Frankie Mattson had 21.

“We didn’t do anything special tonight,” Ishpeming head coach Ryan Reichel said. “The girls just executed our game plan well. I thought we did things in this game that we haven’t seen all year. We had five girls having the mental toughness and the duration to do this.

“We’ve been playing competition like this all year and it really made us better because we’ve had some tough losses. Norway and Negaunee helped prepare us for a game like this.”

“We didn’t go into this believing that we were the underdog. We thought that we were an equal team that had an opportunity to win.”

For the Mustangs, it was a devastating end to what had been an impressive season.

“Ishpeming just played fantastic and they put a lot of points up on us,” Munising head coach Matt Mattson said. “I wish we had brought our A game, but instead we played about a B-minus game. I give Ishpeming a lot of credit, though. They outplayed us and outworked us at times and they deserved to win.”

The game was a tight one throughout the first half. Munising closed out the first quarter on a 6-0 run to take a 16-15 advantage.

The score continued to go back and forth in the second quarter. Ishpeming held the advantage at the break as Maino hit four straight free throws.

After a close opening half, Ishpeming took control quickly in the third quarter. A three-point play by Ava Asgaard put the Hematites up by 10 points, 45-35, and back-to-back treys by Swanson and Austin kept extending Ishpeming’s advantage.

“We were ready for their press and we had a game plan to break that,” Reichel said.

Munising tried to fight back with points from Immel, but the Hematites stayed hot as they went up by 15 points by the end of the third.

Desperately trying to get back into the game, the Mustangs rallied and cut Ishpeming’s lead to eight with the help of a triple from Immel and a layup by Wendt. However, Munising was eventually forced to foul and the Hematites hit almost all of their free throws down the stretch.

“This is a tough way for the seniors to go out because they’ve had great careers,” Mattson said. “They’ve got nothing to hang their heads about, though.”

Ishpeming plays Negaunee in the district final at 7 p.m. Friday.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.