Ishpeming’s Caden Luoma, left, works to get around Westwood defender Ethan Marta and take a shot at the basket during their high school game played at the Hematites’ gym in Ishpeming on Feb. 5. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

STANTON — Seven players are showing the depth of The Mining Journal area’s high school boys basketball talent.

Those seven made various lists put out by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan when it scoured far and wide trying to identify the best talent on courts in every nook and cranny of the state.

The list they compiled is called the BCAM Best, broken down by division and further between a top-10 overall BCAM Best, then division-by-division BCAM Best and Honorable Mention.

Of course, the only players eligible are those whose coaches are members of the BCAM. But a look at its website at bcam.org showed a list of just about every school in the state, and it shows whether that school and/or its head coaches are members. And the vast majority of these places and people are members.

From the Journal daily coverage area, BCAM members are both the boys and girls coaches at Marquette, Negaunee, Ishpeming, Westwood, Gwinn, Munising, L’Anse and Baraga.

The BCAM has compiled seven lists of individual players and teams for both boys and girls basketball, two of them based specifically on performance, three on academics and the other two not really either of those.

Today, we’ll look at three of the boys honors — BCAM Best, Top Shooters and Coaches of the Year:

BCAM Best

While no area players made the overall BCAM Best — which are the top 10 players in the state, regardless of division — three area players made their division’s BCAM Best list, which only includes the top 20 in the state in that division.

For Division 1, Marquette senior Jacob MacPhee, who is bound for Michigan Tech after being voted Mr. U.P. Basketball at the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association All-U.P. meeting in late March, was named a BCAM Best player in the state’s largest division.

Then in Division 3, two more western Marquette County boys made their Best list — senior Caden Luoma of Ishpeming and junior Ethan Marta of Westwood.

Another four area players got onto Honorable Mention lists of BCAM Best, which included anywhere from 20 to 47 more players.

MacPhee’s senior teammate Jaxon Jurmu made that Division 1 grouping, as did senior Jordan Guenette of Negaunee in Division 2, and seniors Carson Kienitz and Trevor Nolan of Munising in Division 3.

Ten more U.P. players also made BCAM Best lists.

For the BCAM Best top 20, senior Gavin Grondin of Kingsford got in there in Division 2; senior Oskar Kangas of Iron Mountain and junior Tanner Theuerkauf of Menominee in Division 3; and senior Austin Gordon of Ewen-Trout Creek, senior Eli MacDonald of Pickford and sophomore Vic Giuliani of Forest Park in Division 4.

Honorable Mentions went out to senior Morgan Sleik of Kingsford in Division 2, junior Nick Miskovich of Ironwood in Division 3, and senior Cole Baij of Norway and junior Leland Hollenbeck of Bessemer in Division 4.

Top shooters

Like the girls, there was an interesting mix of current players and all-time performances from players of the past three decades, as the BCAM shows who the best shooting boys and teams are when taking 3-pointers and free throws.

Among this year’s players, Jurmu and Luoma each broke into this exclusive top-10 in the state over all divisions.

Jurmu was fifth in all-class 3-point shooting, making 49.02% (25 of 51), as Javontae Ross of Flint Powers Catholic was the state leader at 52.8% (38 of 72).

Jurmu then checked in at the No. 8 position in free throw shooting, making 85.29% (58 of 68), while Luoma was just a tad better, ranking No. 5 at 86.84% (99 of 114).

The free throw leader was Phoenix Glassnor of Warren De La Salle, who hit on 95.74% (135 of 141). Glassnor was the only player statewide to break 90%, with second place at 89.25%, or just about 2.5% ahead of Luoma.

Jurmu also led the Sentinels to top-10 team finishes in free throws and 3-pointers, too.

MSHS was tantalizingly close to the best in the state in free throws, finishing at No. 2 by making 76.06% (305 of 401), with Glassnor’s Warren De La Salle squad was also No. 1 among teams at 79.43% (251 of 316).

Looking at everyone’s 3-point range, Marquette was No. 7 at 36.87% (132 of 358) with Riverview Gabriel Richard topping the list at 44.42% (199 of 448).

No other U.P. players or teams made these top-10 lists.

What was also interesting was seeing a single individual and four teams from the area making the all-time top-20 lists in these statistics from the past 30 years or so.

The lone individual from our area in the all-time top 20 is from Negaunee’s 2016-17 team, Jason Waterman, who ranks 17th in 3-pointers at 54.55% (30 of 55).

The Miners of two years later, 2018-19, are sixth on the team 3-point list at 44.19% (118 of 267).

Leaders in those categories, by the way, are Brendan Green of Burton Bentley in 2010-11 at 62.96% individually, and Vermontville Maple Valley in 2013-14 for teams at 47.60%.

Three area teams are actually top-12 on the all-time free throw list — the 1998-99 Westwood team is fourth at 77.97% (315 of 404), while the Patriots of 2006-07 are 12th at 75.72% (237 of 313).

And the top two free-throw shooting teams of the season just ended are also on the all-time list — ’24-’25 leader Warren De La Salle is now also the all-time leader, while this year’s Marquette boys, the current runner-up, are also 10th all-time.

By the way, the all-time single-season free throw shooter is Brad Redford of Frankenmuth in 2007-08, who made 96.74%.

A few other U.P. teams also made these all-time lists, all of them for 3-pointers.

Eric Abramson of E-TC in 2020-21 ranks 18th individually at 54.46% (55 of 101), while four schools are on the team list — the 2002-03 E-TC squad is third at 46.80% (139 of 297), 2000-01 St. Ignace team is ninth at 43.10% (253 of 587), 1999-2000 E-TC unit is 13th at 42.61% (170 of 399), and the 2010-11 Kingsford squad is 16th at 42.11% (96 of 228).

This is the third of four stories about the awards distributed by the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan. Story contents based on an examination of the BCAM website, bcam.org/bcam-awards-published/. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.