Rapid River’s Mason Berglund, center, protects the ball against Ewen-Trout Creek defender Eli Nordine, left, on Monday night at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee. (Journal photo by Jess Makela)

NEGAUNEE — The Rapid River defense stood tall Monday night at Negaunee’s Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium, fighting off a potent Ewen-Trout Creek offense for a 63-56 win to advance to the Class D regional tournament championship game at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Rockets’ head coach Rich Poma said his team responded well to the pressure of the high stakes.

“Once we got the jitters out, I wasn’t too worried,” Poma said. “I knew it would take a little bit to get into the game.

“It was a big crowd and I don’t think our guys could hear me at all during the game.

“Once we got our feet under us, we got our confidence.”

The storyline of Rapid River’s defensive success was containing Panthers’ offensive leader Jake Witt to just nine points.

Poma said putting junior forward Logan Hardwick on Witt was key to shutting him down.

“It was determination,” Poma said. “We wanted to keep him from even touching the ball.

“(Hardwick) has a big frame, too, and he’s not looking up at too many kids, so he wasn’t intimidated.

“(Hardwick) has the skill set to persevere through good players. We kept pressure on their guards from getting clean looks all night.”

E-TC head coach Brad Besonen said he knew his team would struggle if Witt didn’t have a good night.

“It didn’t look like he could settle in,” Besonen said. “He kept settling for mid-range stuff and couldn’t get comfortable tonight.

“Our offense revolves around him. I’d be willing to bet he would have 25 points on (Rapid River) most nights, it’s just unfortunate it didn’t happen tonight.”

Hardwick’s defensive intensity was also turned into offensive success, as he led all scorers with 21 points.

But it was the Panthers who jumped out to an 8-2 lead at the start before the Rockets finished the first quarter with an 11-2 run to take a three-point lead, 13-10.

The Rockets built on their lead in the second period, building momentum with an 8-2 run.

Tyler Sundling scored six points for the Rockets in that last run, including a triple at the buzzer to put Rapid River on top 32-25 at halftime.

But the Panthers weren’t done, starting the second half with a 7-2 run to pull within 34-32 just two minutes into the third quarter.

Then Hardwick again found success, nailing two triples later while scoring 10 points just by himself in the third period to put the Rockets back on top 46-38 headed into the final quarter.

With their season on the line, the Panthers again fought back to make it a three-point game with 90 seconds left. But they couldn’t get the defensive stops necessary to come all the way back as RR’s Mason Berglund sank six straight free throws down the stretch to seal the win for his team.

Poma said his team benefited from similar situations earlier in the season.

“We’ve had a lot of experience throughout the year that really attributed to our resilience,” Poma said. “We had a few games where we were down when we shouldn’t have been, and came back to win.

“We’re never out of a game, and we never give up.”

Ray Bressette can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 251. His email address is rbressette@miningjournal.net.