Sometimes in basketball, the old saying is “live by the three or die by the three.”

The Gwinn High School girls varsity basketball team certainly did the former, shooting nine first half triples to help the Modeltowners roll over visiting L’Anse 75-39 on Thursday night.

Gwinn is now 7-1 on the season after a 48-point first half performance and double-digit nights from senior guards Mallory Delmont, Brooke Mannor and Trisha McGuire and junior guard Marissa Delmont.

Gwinn head coach Ben Olsen said an early deficit seemingly sparked his team for the rest of the night, particularly in the first half with the Modeltowners going 52 percent from the field.

“It was a great team effort,” he said. “We were down 5-0 to start the game and then went on a huge run. We had some balanced scoring. We still need to work on some things defensively, but overall it was a pretty good night.”

L’Anse head coach Scott Lloyd credited Gwinn with a strong shooting performance that wore his team out early.

“Kudos to Gwinn,” he said. “We got out to a 5-0 lead and then they went on a tear. They’d shoot from the corner, we take away that and they would shoot from the elbow.

“We played better in the second half, but when you’re down 48-19 at halftime it hurts your team a lot. Gwinn is a solid team, the toughest we’ve seen yet.”

After the early 5-0 hole, Gwinn jumped out to a 23-8 lead after eight minutes. The Modeltowners topped that first quarter performance with 25 points in the second to take a comfortable 48-19 lead into the locker room.

L’Anse (5-4) was held to single digits again in the third, being outscored 13-8 before Gwinn kept up with that pace in the fourth to cruise to the victory.

Mallory Delmont led the Modeltowners with 16 points while Mannor and McGuire finished with 14 along with five steals defensively. Marissa Delmont had 10 points along with seven assists and six rebounds. Junior guard Emily Curtice added eight points while sophomore guard Tianna Taylor had seven.

The Purple Hornets were led by senior Haley Nankervis with eight points while senior Josie Rice, junior Addison Mattson and sophomore Maija Rice all had seven.

Gwinn went 19 of 26 from the charity striple and grabbed 23 rebounds, while L’Anse was 5 of 10 with 27 rebounds.

Gwinn hosts Negaunee (7-1) on Tuesday while L’Anse hosts Ontonagon (6-1) on Jan. 21.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.