Iron Mountain’s Marcus Johnson puts up a shot over Gwinn’s Tristan Jancsi Friday night in Iron Mountain. (Iron Mountain Daily News photo)

IRON MOUNTAIN — Talent and athleticism, when one team has more of those two things than the other, the one without is usually at a disadvantage from the get go. Behind a combined 49 points for Foster Wonders and Marcus Johnson, the Iron Mountain Mountaineers cruised past the Gwinn Modeltowners 70-20 here Friday night, to remain undefeated.

Wonders 28 points led all scores, with Johnson scoring 21 to lead the way for the now (7-0) Mountaineers, in what was a dual conference win in the West PAC and Mid-Peninsula Conferences.

“We got off to a good start tonight, we haven’t played at home in over 30 days. The schedule thus far hasn’t been to kind to us in that regard, but we got through it,” said IM head coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson. “Tonight we came out and we were ready right away, our defense was good and it opened things up for us offensively.”

The Mountaineers came out in a three quarter press, which rattled the Modeltowners right from the start. IM got several easy early baskets off of their press, and after one quarter, the Mountaineers led 23-9.

“I thought out defensive pressure was good all night. We also wanted to extend their defense like we did and it gave them all sorts of trouble,” Coach Johnson said.

The frustrated Modeltowners also turned the ball over often, which IM also capitalized on.

Coach Johnson also noted that his teams rebounding was good all throughout the game.

“We also had 22 steals. Most of the time, when you have that many steals in a basketball game, the result is usually in your favor. It bodes well for the offense too, getting extra fast break opportunities,” said Johnson. IM out rebounded Gwinn by probably a 2 to 1 margin.

Coming out of the locker room after halftime with a 46-12 lead, IM began to slowly substitute their bench players in in groups at different points of the second half.

“Everyone got to play, which helps when there’s a given night when we may have to go into our bench for one reason or another,” said Johnson.

To be on the losing side of a game like that isn’t easy, but the Gwinn kids didn’t stop playing, or weren’t simply going through the motions. Head coach Jim Finkbeiner made light of the situation after the game by saying “You hope that the kids do learn something from tonight. IM is the No. 1 team in the UP for a reason, and they have two tremendous players. But they have other players that can play well and contribute.”

Finkbeiner added that it’s certainly not ideal to have games like this to often, but it can be used as a learning experience going forward. Gwinn, who falls to (1-7) on the season, returns home to face Mid-Pen conference foe Gladstone on Tuesday.