Bark River-Harris senior Sierra Debelak, center, looks to get by Westwood senior Karlie Patron in their MHSAA Division 3 district tournament semifinal game played at Westwood High School on Wednesday night. (Journal photo by Ryan Spitza)

“Thankfully Madi hit a 3 to kind of get us going.” — Kurt Corcoran, Westwood girls basketball head coach, on Madi Koski making the Patriots’ first shot more than 5 minutes into the game

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ISHPEMING — It was a sluggish start for the Westwood varsity girls basketball team in Wednesday night’s MHSAA Division 3 district tournament semifinal matchup with Bark River-Harris.

The Patriots found themselves down 10-5 after one quarter and didn’t even manage to hit a shot until Madi Koski drained a corner triple over five minutes into the contest to put her team on the board.

That shot was only the beginning of a big night for the Westwood senior. Koski hit six more field goals to finish with 20 points, leading the Patriots to a 51-36 victory over the visiting Broncos.

The prize for Upper Peninsula Divisions 1-3 No. 3-ranked Westwood (20-2) is a date in Friday’s district championship game with an all too familiar foe — U.P. No. 5 Negaunee (16-6).

The Miners toppled Manistique 48-18 in the other half of the bracket on Wednesday, setting up a postseason bout between the two schools for the third year in a row. This will be the first instance in that time, though, that they face off in the district final. The previous two matchups took place in quarterfinal and semifinal rounds, with the Patriots coming out on top in both.

Westwood is seeking consecutive district titles after topping Gwinn last year. Head coach Kurt Corcoran said his team has the talent to repeat, but knows they’ll be facing a hungry Miners squad who they split with during the regular season.

“We can, but nothing would make Negaunee happier than knocking us off,” he said. “We’ve played spoiler for them the last two years and they’re going to be hungry. We’re going to have to match that hunger and intensity on their home floor.

“It’s going to be a great atmosphere and it’ll probably be one of the best games in the U.P. all season. Hopefully, anyways, because we played terrible there last time. We need a little bit of redemption and I think the girls are ready.”

Back on Wednesday, Corcoran said his team had several first-quarter looks but just couldn’t get a shot to fall early.

“It was definitely a slow start to the game,” he said. “It really wasn’t anything we were doing wrong. I thought we had a lot of good looks. It’s just that there was a lid on the bucket to start the game.

“We had a lot of layups, a couple of kick-out 3-pointers, but every shot was just taking the wind out of my sails as a coach and all of the fans, too. I don’t know what to attribute it to.

“We had a good day of practice (Tuesday) and it was just one of those quarters.

“Thankfully Madi hit a 3 to kind of get us going, and then we had a little bit of rhythm and you could just see the flow happen a little bit.

“It was about as good of a start for Bark River-Harris as they could’ve imagined and as bad of a start for us. Luckily we’re talented enough, we didn’t panic and it was just one bucket at a time.”

The flat-footed start quickly turned around in the second quarter, with the Patriots outscoring the Broncos 13-3 to take an 18-13 lead at halftime.

A layup from senior Karlie Patron tied the game at 10-10. Patron was fouled on the play but was unsuccessful on the free throw attempt, keeping things tied before Patron hit a 2-point jumper on the next Westwood possession to give the Patriots their first lead.

Westwood increased its lead to 35-24 after three quarters. The game was still within reach for the Broncos until Koski came out with the first five points of the fourth. That kicked off a 12-3 Patriots scoring run and allowed the home team to pull away for one final win on its home court.

“In the fourth quarter, I think we stepped on them and that just kind of killed their run,” Koski said. “I was glad to do that.

“It means everything,” she added on getting one last home win. “I’m so thankful for my teammates and our community and coaches for supporting us. It’s really sad, but I’m really happy that we got to end it with a win.”

The Broncos, who end their season with a record of 12-9, were led by senior Grace Peterson with 13 points, including the first six of the night for BR-H that put the Patriots on their toes early.

“We came out pretty good and the girls were all fired up,” Bark River-Harris head coach Matt Richer said. “We wanted to attack (Westwood) a little bit. We kind of caught them off guard by being physical and aggressive on them.

“It worked early, but I think in the second quarter we had some trouble scoring points. We only had three (points) and shots just weren’t falling.

“(Westwood) does such a good job defensively with challenging shooters, boxing out and limiting you to one shot. It kind of got us off rhythm a little bit and once they started scoring, it really put a lot of pressure on us mentally and physically, because they’re also hard to stop on that side of the ball.

“I’m proud of my girls. They gave it everything they got. We made it to halftime only being down five. In the locker room at halftime, I’m thinking, we haven’t hit shots yet. We’re going to hit shots.

“I don’t think any of my 3-point shooters hit a shot (tonight), which hasn’t happened in eight or 10 games. But I’m proud of my girls. We’ll be back next year. We’ve got a good group coming back and we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Senior Riley Arndt added eight points for the Broncos while senior Sierra Debelak chipped in seven.

Westwood shot 21 of 43 from the field and was led by Koski with 20. Sophomore Natalie Prophet followed her with 13 points while Patron and senior Tessa Leece each added six.

The Patriots collected 30 rebounds with Leece grabbing nine.

Tip-off in Friday’s Division 3 district championship game between Westwood and Negaunee is slated for 7 p.m. at Lakeview Memorial Gym.

Koski said preparing for a team like the Miners means doing things one step at a time.

“We’re just going to make sure we’re playing our best team basketball,” she said. “We’re going to work really hard and focus on the little things.”

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.