Marquette's Raffy Milado, top, grabs a rebound for a putback through a crowd of players during a high school boys basketball game played against Kingsford at the Redmen gym on Thursday. Millado grabbed the rebound of a shot by Luke Ogea, right, in the third quarter. Defending on the play is Kingsford's Gavin Londo (24), Luke Terrian (23) behind Chase Kreski (10) and Nate Rutter (15). (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

PAINESDALE — Republic-Michigamme kept up with Jeffers for one quarter before the Jets started pulling away for a 71-43 high school girls basketball victory on Thursday night.

R-M sophomore Tailyn Raisanen led all scorers with 18 points as the Hawks were only able to field six players, all of them finding the scoring column.

“The last time we played them we only scored 17 points, so there was a definite improvement on offense,” R-M coach April Radcliffe said. “In the first quarter, we were making our shots, playing aggressive defense, rebounding well and breaking their press.”

The Hawks (0-12, 0-9 Copper Mountain Conference) trailed just 15-13 after one quarter before Jeffers (7-5, 7-2) established a 35-23 halftime lead, extending it to 50-28 after three quarters.

Junior Nikki Wertanen contributed nine points for R-M, while Ivy Klemett scored 13 points to lead 10 players scoring for the Jets. Teammate Cierra Stevens added 12 and Dana Kinnunen had 10.

Jeffers also won the JV game 54-14.

On Monday, the Hawks travel to Ontonagon, while Jeffers hosts Dollar Bay.

Munising 72,

Forest Park 72

At Munising, The Munising High School boys basketball team got what it wanted in the second half against Forest Park — a run-and-gun game.

But it still took making a bunch of free throws at the end to pull out a 79-72 victory over the Trojans at home on Thursday night in a makeup game from Jan. 11.

“We pushed the transition (game) for sure because they’re a lot taller than us,” MHS coach Terry Kienitz said. “We wanted to try to wear them down.”

Leading 32-26 at halftime, the Mustangs outscored FP 47-46 in the second half, but had to make 11 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to insure their best victory of the season.

“Forest Park is a good team,” Kienitz said. “This was a back-and-forth game, and both teams played pretty good defense for a high-scoring game like this.”

Munising’s Alec Blank led all scorers with 22 points. Teammate Cade Contreras added 16, Anthony Mattson 15 and Jesse Matson 11.

“(Forest Park was) mostly playing zone (defense),” Kienitz said. “We had good ball movement and attacked well.

“Alec was able to find the seams. He only had one 3-pointer.”

While the Mustangs (8-1, 4-1 Skyline Central Conference) made their free throws, the Trojans (6-5, 4-3) were sinking 14 3-pointers, including five by leading scorer Riley Hendrickson, who had five triples.

Teammate Josh Logan added four 3-pointers in his 18 points, while Max Nylund had 14 points and Connor Bortolini 11.

Forest Park won the JV game 63-43.

With this game being a makeup game, both teams are back in action tonight. Munising goes to Gwinn, while the Trojans host Carney-Nadeau.

Kingsford 80,

Marquette 63

At Marquette, the Flivvers scored a rare victory against the Redmen, the No. 1 Class A-B-C team in the Upper Peninsula the past two weeks.

Kingsford coach Dan Olkkonen believed it was his team’s first win against MSHS since 2012 and first win at Marquette in at least a decade.

The win came despite 20 points scored by Redmen junior guard Raffy Millado and 16 by sophomore guard Luke Ogea.

Despite Marquette (6-4, 2-1 Great Northern Conference) jumping out to an 11-2 lead just two minutes into the game, the Flivvers, No. 5 in this week’s U.P. poll, worked their way back to take a 22-18 lead after one quarter.

The momentum of the comeback continued in the second as Kingsford (7-3, 2-1) extended its halftime advantage to 48-29.

“We had a great start (after the first two minutes) and got momentum,” Olkkonen said. “We handled their full-court trap pressure well and had just a few turnovers. We made wise decisions out there.

“We started playing defense. The kids were kind of intimidated by their speed but they really settled down and played good defense.”

Luke Terrian led the Flivvers with a career-high 34 points. He scored 23 points in the first half that included a pair of traditional three-point plays.

“Luke was an absolute load underneath the basket,” Olkkonen said. “He did a great job carrying us.”

Tyler Beauchamp added 15 ponts and Andrew Mann 11 for Kingsford, while junior Ethan Martysz had 10 for MSHS.

Marquette, which won the JV game though no score was available, plays at Westwood on Tuesday. Kingsford is off until next Friday when it plays at Escanaba.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee with contributions from the Iron Mountain Daily News. Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.