Just like it was a week earlier when Yoopers everywhere — not just in the U.P. — paid attention to the Ishpeming and Negaunee teams as they made attempts to win a state championship at Michigan State University.

The Hematites were able to accomplish their goal in Division 4 while the Miners fell just a little bit short in Division 2, but at the UPSSA meeting, both teams and their star players earned a huge share of attention.

When the spring snowflakes that fell for much of the week settled, it was Negaunee senior guard Ella Mason who attained the biggest award — the U.P. Player of the Year, commonly known as Miss U.P. Basketball.

She won a 10-6 vote over Ishpeming senior guard Jenna Maki for that honor.

Ishpeming's Jenna Maki, top center, goes up for a layup to score two points during a high school girls basketball game played against Westwood at the Patriots’ gym in Ishpeming on Jan. 26. At lower left is teammate Jenessa Eagle, who like Maki made the All-Upper Peninsula girls basketball Dream Team. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

In turn, each of those West PAC/Mid-Peninsula Conference players won their respective divisional Player of the Year honor.

Mason beat out Gladstone sophomore Lillie Johnson 10-7 for the Divisions 1-3 award, while Maki won what might’ve been a slightly uncomfortable competition — if she had known it was going on — against her own teammate, sophomore guard Jenessa Eagle, for the Division 4 title.

The Ishpeming-on-Ishpeming competition wasn’t much of one with Maki winning in a 17-0 shutout.

The three Marquette County players and Johnson were the only ones even nominated for those awards after the two west end teams combined to win 54 games and lose just three, two of those losses coming against each other during the regular season.

Mason, at 5-foot-8, broke the Miners program scoring record on March 6 that had been held since 1999 by Maryellen (Poutanen) Charbonneau of 1,325 points. Mason accomplished the feat in basically three years, since Negaunee head coach Mike O’Donnell noted that Mason scored just 11 points in limited varsity action as a freshman.

From left, Negaunee's Ella Mason is guarded closely by Detroit Edison’s Devin Hagemann as the Miners’ Clare O’Donnell stands behind them during their MHSAA Division 2 state semifinal girls basketball game played at Michigan State University’s Breslin Center in East Lansing on March 22. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

“She was the best player on the best team in the U.P.,” a rightly proud O’Donnell said in his notes supporting Mason’s candidacy for both All-U.P. and all-state status from the Associated Press.

She was named Division 2 All-State on the first team a few days after the UPSSA meeting by the AP.

Not too surprisingly, Mason captured the West PAC and M-PC Player of the Year awards at their coaches’ meetings a few weeks back, too.

This season, Mason averaged 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.3 steals a game while making 88% of her free throws.

O’Donnell said the Michigan Tech-bound Mason had notable performances of 38 points vs. Baraga, a team that could’ve made its own run of playing at MSU if Ishpeming hadn’t been standing in their way. There were also 25-point games against Ishpeming and Houghton, and 23 vs. Petoskey in the MHSAA regionals and in the regular season against another downstate team, Manton.

“She constantly faced defenses specifically designed to stop her, and she was literally face-guarded the whole tournament run along with many times during the regular season,” O’Donnell said. “I can’t say I saw that with any other player this season.

“And she only averaged (playing in) 25 minutes a game in the regular season because of our blowouts.”

After Negaunee was a rather offensively challenged team as a whole during Mason’s junior year, the Miners showed some improvement this season, though they wouldn’t really be called a scoring juggernaut.

A look at their point totals showed the vast majority of games scoring in the 50s and 60s, with four in the 70s, the final one Negaunee’s opening district tournament win vs. Kingsford.

And NHS was held in the 40s — and once in the 30s — also four times, three of them in the tournament, including a season-low 38 in a 38-21 victory over Sault Ste. Marie in its district championship contest.

Ishpeming falls a bit more into the run-and-gun category, probably helped by the pressure defense that Hematites head coach Ryan Reichel liked to employ for as long as possible as evidenced on TV during IHS’ quick comeback for a 73-54 victory over Kingston in the state title tilt.

Maki, of course, was a big part of that, according to her coach.

“She changed as a player,” Reichel said about Maki’s transformation last offseason, making the comment after the Hematites’ 75-40 win over Fowler in the state semifinals. “She went from a ‘me’ player to a ‘we’ player over this past summer.

“We’re not in this position without her change as an athlete. She started on varsity all four years and we’ve often had to look to her to do everything.

“She went from wanting to score 1,000 points to wanting to play in the Breslin Center.”

That comment definitely caught the attention of UPSSA voters at the meeting, summing up for many of them what they like to hear about the makeup of a player.

With a flourish in those last few games — 30 points vs. Fowler and 24 vs. Kingston — the 6-foot Maki actually raised her scoring average up to 16.5 points per game this season while also making 4.7 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 2.7 assists each night out. She shot 44.4% from the field, including 31.0% on 3-pointers, and sank 70% on free throws.

She made the top honor squads in each of her conferences, the Dream Team in the West PAC and First Team in the M-PC.

Eagle, at 5-9, actually outscored Maki this season, though it was close as she finished at 16.7 points per game, including a game-high 27 points in the state championship contest. She added in 4.6 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 4.0 steals per game to go with 39.4% shooting from the field, including 31.0% on triples, and made 69.4% on her free throws.

Like Maki, she was a West PAC Dream Teamer and M-PC First Teamer.

Those three Marquette County players made up half of the All-U.P. Dream Team that would normally have just five members. But after Eagle and West Iron County’s Danica Shamion tied for the final spot in the initial round of voting, a “vote-off” was held and again they were tied 8-8, so that opened up the extra Dream Team spot.

Shamion, who will be attending Central Michigan University to run track and field, was noted as an AP Division 3 all-state honorable mention selection in basketball. Her averages were 18.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, 6.3 assists, three steals and one blocked shot per game for the 15-12 Wykons.

Johnson of 14-9 Gladstone was an all-state First Team pick in D-3 and also the Great Northern Conference Player of the Year. Headed to NCAA Division I Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she scored a Braves’ single-season record 985 points this season for a 25-point-per-game clip.

Johnson, who actually received one more vote than Mason and Maki for the All-U.P. Dream Team, also averaged 14.3 rebounds a game for a more-than-healthy double-double average, adding in 4.5 steals and two assists per contest.

Also on the Dream Team is senior Keira Maki of 12-11 Escanaba, rounding out this honor group’s composition of entirely Divisions 1-3 players. Signed to play at Division III Wisconsin-Stevens Point, she made the all-state Division 2 Second Team.

This Maki posted averages of 22.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.8 blocked shots, 2.7 steals and 2.7 assists per game as she finished with 1,189 career points.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 552. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.