Negaunee’s Jakson Sager, right, dribbles around Westwood’s Marcus Boase in a game played at the Patriots’ gym in Ishpeming on Wednesday. (Journal photo by Kat Torreano)

ISHPEMING — It’s not too often a basketball team has a bad shooting performance.

It’s certainly not a common occurrence when both teams are average at best from the field.

That was the case with the Negaunee and Westwood varsity boys on Wednesday night, with both teams shooting in the 30-percent range.

What that meant for the Upper Peninsula Divisions 1-3 No. 3-ranked Miners and the Patriots was a low-scoring, defensive grindout night.

Westwood was able to hang around, but Negaunee led from start to finish and picked up a 43-32 win on Westwood’s Senior Night.

It was the Miners’ fifth straight win over the Pats, helping them improve to 16-2 on the season. WHS is in the midst of a three-game skid, falling to 10-9.

Negaunee hit just 12 of its 35 shot attempts for 34.2 percent. Senior guard Drew Lindberg led the Miners with 16 points, 10 coming in the first half to help keep his team in the mix.

Quite possibly the biggest shot of the night came from senior guard Jason Waterman, whose corner triple early in the fourth quarter put Negaunee up 31-21 at the time.

“We didn’t shoot it well, especially early,” Negaunee head coach Dan Waterman said. “I thought down the stretch, we executed pretty well. We got a layup on a couple of out-of-bounds plays, Jason had a big 3 in the corner and thankfully Drew Lindberg had enough early on to keep us afloat.”

Waterman added that it was nice to get back into the win column after the Miners suffered only their second loss of the season last week, and hopes to use the victory as momentum going into their final two games with Calumet and U.P. No. 1 Iron Mountain.

“I was really proud of the way we competed in the second half,” he said. “I thought we rebounded well and we needed a win to kind of lift the spirits after a tough loss at Marquette. We’ve got a big week next week to prepare for districts. I’m just really proud of my guys (tonight).”

On a night Westwood honored its five seniors — Taylor Dellangelo, Ty Alderton, Matthew Paavo, Erik Anderson and Mason Mariuzza — the Patriots went 33.3 percent shooting, sinking 15 of 45.

“We had opportunities, we really did,” Westwood head coach Scott Syrjala said. “I know that sounds cliche, but we shot 33 percent. Some of that was obviously due to the zone defense Negaunee had. Our kids need to move the ball a little bit better and get a little more patient, but we had some open looks in what we were doing.

“We’re starting to figure it out a little bit. We’re getting better and I’m proud of our kids’ defense effort.”

Negaunee went up 9-4 after one quarter before the Patriots closed the gap slightly to 15-12 at halftime.

Westwood opened the third quarter with a bucket from Alderton to cut the lead to one point before Lindberg answered with his third triple of the night.

Waterman hit a 2-point jumper at the buzzer to keep the Miners up eight points going into the fourth with a 27-19 lead.

The Patriots cut the lead to seven points three times in the final stretch, but were unable to inch any closer.

Lindberg paced the Miners with 16 points, while Waterman finished with 10. Senior guard Drew DuShane chipped in seven.

Westwood was led by Dellangelo and Alderton with 10 points apiece. Sophomore forward Zachary Carlson added seven.

Westwood wraps up its regular season by visiting Houghton (10-8) on Monday in a game originally scheduled for March 5.

Negaunee will hold its Senior Night festivities on Tuesday by hosting Calumet (6-10).

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.