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All-star Saturday: 36th Upper Peninsula All-Star Classic high school basketball games set for St. Ignace

Negaunee’s Alyssa Hill, second from left, reaches over the outstretched arm of Westwood’s Natalie Prophet, second from right, to haul in this rebound during their high school game played at Patriots’ gym in Ishpeming on Feb. 19, 2021. Both players will play in the U.P. All-Star Classic on Saturday in St. Ignace. Also defending in this photo is Westwood’s Ellie Miller, center, while watching the play is Westwood's Kaitlin Williams, left, and Miners' Larissa Anderson, right. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

On Saturday at St. Ignace High School:

• Skills contest, 9:45 a.m.

• Girls game, 11:30 a.m.

• Boys game, immediately after

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Ishpeming's Jayce Kipling, center, goes up for a shot while defended by Gladstone's Elliott Vitito, left, and Kaden Gibbs during their high school boys basketball game played at the Hematites gym on March 3. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

ST. IGNACE — The 36th Upper Peninsula All-Star Classic basketball games will return to St. Ignace on Saturday. It will mark the fifth time the game has been held in the Straits of Mackinac city.

Led by Miss U.P. Basketball Reide Osterman of Baraga and Mr. U.P. Basketball Jaden Borseth of Ewen-Trout Creek, 18 girls and 21 boys — all graduating seniors — are scheduled to participate. The girls game begins at 11:30 a.m., followed by the boys game.

Skills contests will precede these contests at 9:45 a.m., with both boys and girls competing in 3-point shooting in addition to a girls’ free-throw contest and boys’ slam-dunk competition.

Girls will practice at 4 p.m. Friday and the boys at 5 p.m. Players and their parents will be guests on a Shepler’s Ferry tour around the Mackinac Bridge area at 8 p.m.

The girls will be split into North-South teams, while the boys are split into East-West.

Baraga’s Reide Ostermann, center, drives past Munising’s Michaela Werner in their MHSAA Division 4 regional tournament semifinal game played on March 11, 2019, in Kingsford. (Ironwood Daily Globe photo by Jason Juno)

Including each of the players from the area, these all-star lineups include four of the five All-U.P. Dream Team players for both boys and girls as named by the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in March.

For the girls, there is Osterman, Natalie Prophet of Westwood, Alyssa Hill of Negaunee and Ally Schultz of St. Ignace. Osterman and Hill will be on the North team while Prophet and Schultz are on the South.

Among the boys, it’s Borseth, Zach Carlson of Westwood, Colin Hudson of Escanaba and Jonny Schutz of Jeffers. Carlson, Borseth and Schutz will play for the West while Hudson is on the East.

A pair of father-son duos will be on the boys’ East team — Jim Suggitt and his son EJ Suggitt of Rudyard and coach Tracy Hudson and his son Colin Hudson of Escanaba. This will be Tracy Hudson’s final game as a boys coach. The long-time Escanaba boys coach will replace retiring Mike Beveridge as Esky girls coach this winter.

The E-TC boys, who finished as runners-up in the MHSAA Division 4 state tournament, have the most players of any single team — four with Borseth, Eric Abramson, Kelsey Jilek and Brendan Polkky.

Several other teams have multiple players in the games. From the area, they include Carlson, Marcus Boase and Zach Beckman of the Westwood boys team, along with Emma Rutter and Riley Johnson of the Superior Central girls team.

Baraga gets an “honorable mention” in the multiples category as Osterman will be joined by her coach, U.P. Division 4 Coach of the Year Tyler Larson, in the game.

Other area players included in these games are Jenna Matson of Munising, who is on the girls North squad; and Jayce Kipling of Ishpeming, Jonas Bicek of Marquette, Jesse Duran of Munising and Claudio Bistolfi of Newberry, all on the boys East team.

Borseth finished his career as the U.P.’s No. 7 all-time boys scorer, totaling 2,073 points for the state runner-up Panthers. Foster Wonders of Iron Mountain established the all-time record of 2,286 points last year.

Dominic Jacobetti of Negaunee St. Paul set the record of 2,140 points in 1965 before it was surpassed by Gage Kreski of St. Ignace in 2016 when he produced 2,178 points.

Here are the teams:

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GIRLS GAME

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SOUTH — Natalie Prophet, Westwood; Claire VanGinhoven, Gladstone; Lucy Bennin and Kennedy Guild, Pickford; Cara Zawacki, Bark River-Harris; Brooke Besteman, Rudyard; Natalie Ryvolova and Ally Schultz, St. Ignace; and Tessa Paquin, Engadine. Coach — Dorene Ingalls, St. Ignace

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NORTH — Jenna Matson, Munising; Alyssa Hill, Negaunee; Emma Rutter and Riley Johnson, Superior Central; Reide Osterman, Baraga; Jana Loukus and Marybeth Halonen, Calumet; Landry Koski, Mid Peninsula; Paige Sleeman, Houghton. Coach — Tyler Larson, Baraga

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BOYS GAME

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EAST — Jonas Bicek, Marquette; Jayce Kipling, Ishpeming; Jesse Duran, Munising; Claudio Bistolfi, Newberry; Connor Smale, Colin Hudson and Jared Hudson, Escanaba; Tate Besteman, Rudyard; Ely North, St. Ignace; Nolan Amundson, Norway; EJ Suggitt, Rudyard; Coaches — Tracy Hudson, Escanaba; Jim Suggitt, Rudyard

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WEST — Zach Carlson, Marcus Boase, and Zach Beckman, Westwood; Eric Amundson, Jaden Borseth, Kelsey Jilek and Brendan Polkky, Ewen-Trout Creek; Kyle Sorenson, Wakefield-Marenisco; John Schutz, Jeffers; Marcus Sutherland, Lake Linden-Hubbell. Coach — Brad Besonen, Ewen-Trout Creek

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