Ishpeming’s Otto Swanson, center, goes up for a basket as Gwinn’s Caleb Anderson, right, and Nick Lightford defend in their high school boys basketball game played Wednesday at Gwinn High School. (Journal photo by Amy Grigas)

“He’s got that ability to make those kind of shots and he finished it off.” — George Niemi, Ishpeming head coach, on senior Breck Bell

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GWINN — Senior Breck Bell had already scored a team-leading 16 points for Ishpeming with 10 seconds to play in Wednesday night’s boys basketball game at Gwinn.

So with the Hematites down by one point but having possession of the ball, they looked to Bell for some late-game heroics.

And Bell answered, well, the bell, hitting a floater with four seconds remaining to send the Hematites by Gwinn 51-50 for their first win of the season.

“I hate to say this, and it’s going to sound cliche, but that’s exactly how we drew it up,” Ishpeming head coach George Niemi said. “We had Breck coming off the double screen and he was taking it right to the rack. I would’ve liked to have seen a layup, but he got the floater.

“He’s got that ability to make those kind of shots and he finished it off.”

It was Niemi’s first victory as head coach of the Hematite cagers, and after two hard-fought defeats to Gladstone and Westwood to open the season, he was delighted that his players earned a victory in a tightly contested game where neither team ever led by more than 10 points.

“It feels great and I couldn’t be more happy for the kids first and foremost to get that win going into the holiday break,” he said. “We played hard, we battled hard, and to get the ‘W’ after being up, and then down, and then (Gwinn) having battled back again, and then us being able to finish out that game, it’s a great feeling.”

With its semi-inexperienced roster, Ishpeming held a nine-point lead after three quarters, 43-34. When Gwinn started to come back, Niemi admitted nerves might have started to kick in, but his group handled the pressure well.

“I’m sure there were some nerves but that’s something that we need to work on in practice,” he said. “Handling that heat, handling that pressure. Again, we’ve got two kids that played basketball last year. The other five, six, seven of them, they’re trying to get up to speed.”

Ishpeming improved to 1-2 while Gwinn dropped to 0-3. Effort was the least of issues for the Modeltowners, however.

“I was really happy with the effort,” Gwinn head coach Jim Finkbeiner said. “We had four quarters of effort. Even when we were down, the effort was there, we were just making mistakes. We’re still learning and without two starters in the lineup, guys had to step into positions and they did.”

The Modeltowners missed junior starters David DuVall and Reid Hill, but it ultimately came down to missed free throws that doomed Gwinn, which was just 3 of 9 at the charity stripe.

“These are two pretty evenly matched teams,” Finkbeiner said. “We were a little shorthanded, but that’s no excuse. Even if we had (DuVall and Hill), this is the kind of game it was going to be. It was going to be a war from start to finish.

“Hats off to Ishpeming, they’ve got a good scorer (Bell) and he made a big shot. You’ve got to give him credit.

“But to me, the game really came down to free throws. We didn’t shoot well from the free throw line, and we make 50 percent of our free throws, it doesn’t come down to a last-second shot.

“A lot of times in games, everyone looks at the end to see what happened, but you can look at things throughout the game that really cost you. Free throws were one of them and too many turnovers early.”

Despite the missed free throws and early mistakes, Finkbeiner reiterated his optimism about his team’s effort and how that allowed them to claw back in the final quarter.

“That was the biggest thing we talked about against Negaunee, we didn’t have effort for four quarters,” he said. “We had effort for four quarters (tonight) and that makes up for a lot of things. That effort in the fourth quarter turned into getting stops on the other end and getting good looks at the bucket which gave us the lead, but once again, give Ishpeming credit. They hit a big shot.”

Ishpeming led 18-15 after one quarter thanks to a triple from senior John Corkin that bounced off the rim and in with about 10 seconds left.

The visitors increased their lead to five by halftime, 30-25.

The bulk of the story came in the fourth quarter with Ishpeming holding a nine-point advantage to open the period.

The Hematites were held to one field goal through the first six minutes, and Gwinn tied the game at 45-45 on consecutive 3s from juniors Mastin Love and James Harnick. Harnick’s triple, his third of the night, came with 2:24 remaining.

Ishpeming senior Ben Pruett and Gwinn senior Nick Lightford traded 2-point baskets to make it 47-47 before Pruett hit a layup to put the Hematites up two with 1:01 to go.

The Modeltowners called timeout with 15 seconds left, and on the inbound, junior Tristan Jancsi found Love in the left corner as the latter hit a go-ahead 3 as he was falling to the floor to put Gwinn up 50-49 with 10 seconds to play.

Love’s shot prompted an Ishpeming timeout, allowing the Hematites to draw up their final strategy. Pruett took the inbound and the ball wound up in the hands of Bell, who hit the go-ahead floater.

Gwinn had one final chance, hustling downcourt and finding an open Caleb Anderson who attempted a game-winning 3, but the shot fell just shy.

Ishpeming sank 15 shots from the field, although total attempts weren’t immediately available. The Hematites were 6 of 10 at the line and led offensively by Bell with 18 points. Senior Jacob Kugler added 14.

Gwinn was 19 of 51 from the field as Harnick paced the Modeltowners offense with 20 points. Lightford finished with 10 while Jancsi had seven.

Gwinn collected 17 rebounds with Harnick getting seven. Rebounding statistics weren’t available for Ishpeming.

Gwinn visits Manistique (1-2) on Friday while Ishpeming hosts Iron Mountain (2-0) on Jan. 3.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.