From left, Houghton’s Romi Mattson tries to inbound the ball against Negaunee defenders Clare O’Donnell and Keira Waterman as the Gremlins’ Ellie Hainault tries to get in position to receive the throw during their MHSAA Division 2 district tournament game played at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Negaunee High School student Delaney Gladwell)

NEGAUNEE — The Negaunee High School girls basketball team got what it hopes is a deep run in the MHSAA Division 2 tournament off to a good start with a 50-32 home victory over Houghton on Wednesday evening.

The Miners, who have been the unanimous No. 1 team in the Upper Peninsula for Divisions 1-3 just about all winter, improved to a nifty 22-1 with the win, its seventh straight triumph since suffering a 51-39 loss at Ishpeming on Feb. 6.

“This was a tricky first tournament game for us,” veteran Negaunee head coach Mike O’Donnell said in an email detailing the result. “Houghton has been red-hot lately and had a tournament game under (its) belt Monday night.”

On that night, the Gremlins (17-7) defeated Escanaba 56-30 at their own gym.

“I thought we played through some first-game jitters on offense, but what stayed rock steady all night was our defensive effort,” O’Donnell said. “Houghton is ranked as one of the highest scoring teams in Division 2, so for us to hold them to 32 points is a tremendous effort by our girls.”

The Miners’ Clare O’Donnell led all scorers with 15 pionts as she hit a pair of 3-pointers and made at least one basket in every quarter. Teammate Paige O’Donnell added 13 points, also scoring in every quarter, while Negaunee’s Keira Waterman put in 10 points and Liliana Saunders seven.

Paige O’Donnell also grabbed a team-high 14 rebounds as Clare O’Donnell had nine.

Mia Lawson and Ellie Hainault paced Houghton with nine points apiece.

The Miners jumped out to a 13-3 lead after one quarter, the Gremlins limited to just three free throws in that period, but made a move in the second quarter by pulling within 17-11 at halftime.

Negauee got hot in the third, though, racing out to a 34-16 lead as the teams matched point for point in the fourth.

The Miners, also ranked No. 8 this week in The Associated Press statewide Division 2 poll, host U.P. No. 2 Gladstone (19-4) at 6 p.m. today for the district championship.

The winner of that game advances to Monday’s 7 p.m. regional semifinal at Manistique to face Sault Ste. Marie or Petoskey.

Westwood 48, Jeffers 38

At Westwood on Wednesday, the Patriots (7-14) kept their Cinderella run in the Division 3 playoffs going with a district tourney opening victory.

Addy Hallum scored 12 points to lead Westwood, which travels to Calumet to play the Copper Kings (10-11) for the district title at 6 p.m. today.

That winner goes on to Lakeview Gym in Negaunee for a D-3 regional game vs. Gwinn or Menominee at 7 p.m. Monday.

Lyn Magnuson added 11 points to the winning cause on Wednesday, while Makayla Fisher and Eliisa Doney scored eight apiece.

Jeffers (7-14) was paced by Mia Nordstrom and Isabelle Rajala with 12 points each.

Westwood made major inroads in the second half, trailing 13-7 after one quarter and 21-13 at halftime.

But the Patriots completely caught up in the third, taking a 32-31 lead into the final period, and put the finishing touches on its triumph in the final eight minutes.

Story contents based on an email received from Negaunee head coach Mike O’Donnella and text message from Westwood head coach Christie Makela. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.