After suffering a heartbreaking loss to the Upper Peninsula’s No. 2-ranked girls team in Westwood roughly 24 hours earlier, the Gwinn girls varsity basketball team quickly regrouped and found itself back in the win column the next night, picking up a 39-27 victory over No. 5 Negaunee.

The Modeltowners are now 12-5 on the year, picking up a big win over the Miners (13-5) before having to square off with them one more time on March 2 in the opening round of the Division 3 district tournament.

The rubber match is bound to be a good one as the Miners won the first game of the regular season 47-34 back on Jan. 21.

Modeltowners head coach Ben Olsen called the win a total team effort on a quick turnaround during a rare occurrence of back-to-back game nights.

“Overall, it was another great team victory,” he said. “We threw together a game plan during the junior varsity game in a classroom since we played Westwood (on Monday night). The girls played and executed the plan extremely well.”

Olsen credited senior Marissa Delmont for her 14-point effort, as well as senior Emily Curtice and junior Tianna Taylor for their tight defense on Negaunee’s Chloe Norman and Alyssa Hill.

“Marissa had another good night and Emily had another good defensive night,” he said. “She held Norman to six a day after holding (Westwood’s) Madi Koski to two. Tianna also did a really good job on Hill. She had a quick six (points), but once we were able to bring the double in timely fashion, we were able to slow her down.

“We expect another big time battle come March. I’m really proud of this group of girls after the Westwood game (Monday night) and obviously after this win (tonight).”

Gwinn led 13-10 after one and the second quarter was a slow one if you like offense with only six total points scored. The Modeltowners had four of those points to Negaunee’s two, giving Gwinn a 17-12 lead at halftime.

The Miners outscored Gwinn 11-10 in the third to cut the deficit to four points with one quarter to go. The Modeltowners’ put out another strong defensive performance in the fourth quarter, however, limiting Negaunee to just six points while scoring 10 of their own to hang on for the eight point win.

Freshman guard Lena Pleaugh finished with 10 points to aid Delmont on offense, while Curtice added five and Taylor four. Pleaugh and Delmont also combined for 12 of Gwinn’s 25 rebounds, grabbing six each.

Hill finished with 13 points for Negaunee followed by Norman’s six. Junior guard Larissa Anderson added four. The Miners finished with 17 boards with Norman grabbing seven.

Gwinn visits Gladstone (5-12) on Thursday. Negaunee visits Westwood (16-1) on Friday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Spitza. Email him at sports@miningjournal.net.