Ishpeming met Indian River Inland Lakes in the MHSAA girls basketball Division 4 quarterfinals here on Wednesday night, a day after almost every other game in this round was played statewide.

Blizzards in the Upper Peninsula, ice storms in the northern Lower Peninsula and just plain geography necessitated the change in venue from Gladstone and date from its originally scheduled Tuesday night.

A pair of teams with excellent records matched up, the Hematites at 23-3 and Lady Bulldogs at 22-4, but they looked like they were in different classes after Ishpeming prevailed 60-22.

This sent the Hematites back to the D-4 semifinals just a day later at the Breslin Center at Michigan State University in East Lansing, where they were to play Morenci from right along the state border with Ohio in the late afternoon on Thursday.

Ishpeming’s Mya Hemmer puts up this successful shot from the paint during an MHSAA Division 4 quarterfinal girls basketball game played against Indian River Inland Lakes in Gaylord on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Ben Murphy)

Ishpeming made this same trip two years ago when it won the state D-4 championship over Kingston, the team Morenci happened to defeat 42-35 in its own quarterfinal on Tuesday.

“I would have played this game on an iceberg under the Mackinac Bridge, if they would have let us,” Ishpeming head coach Ryan Reichel said about Wednesday’s game.

Reichel was adamant he wasn’t letting his team dwell on things out of its control.

“We just have this thing that we share on the team, ‘next play,'” he said. “We’re not going to put energy into things that we can’t change. What we had to do was put energy into playing this basketball game.

“Who cares that the game got moved? Whatever, we’re lucky that we get to play the game.”

Ishpeming’s Jenessa Eagle puts up an uncontested layup that finishes off a fast break during an MHSAA Division 4 quarterfinal girls basketball game played against Indian River Inland Lakes in Gaylord on Wednesday. (Photo courtesy Ben Murphy)

And now they’re back to the Breslin Center.

“They’re excited, there’s a finality to their careers (for the seniors) and now hopefully they have 64 more minutes of basketball left and then it’s all said and done,” Reichel said.

Inland Lakes was able to keep up with the Hematites early on, as they had Mary Myshock hit a pair of early 3-pointers, the second of which gave the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead.

“They’re a good team, they made it to this spot for a reason,” Reichel said. “That had us on our heels a little bit, they came ready to play and had our girls stifled at the beginning, but I just knew once we were able to get a couple buckets and get our pressure up, good things were going to happen for us.”

Ishpeming quickly went in front, and after leading 15-10 at the end of the first quarter, the Hematites really took control in the second.

Jenessa Eagle, who finished with a game-high 27 points, drilled a 3 moments into the frame. That was the start of 24 straight points by Ishpeming, which took a 39-11 lead into halftime thanks to its suffocating defense and barrage of points on the other end; most of those by senior standouts Eagle and Mya Hemmer.

“Up in the U.P., you are familiar with the officials there and the gyms up there, coming into tonight, we didn’t know what it was going to look like, especially from the other team as well,” Hemmer said. “So, we did take it slow (early on) and when we saw that they were being aggressive, we were just like, OK.”

The Hematites began the third quarter with a 3-pointer from Ava Jo Hares in the left corner. They were dominant in this quarter as well, holding IL to just one field goal as their lead grew to 60-14 entering the fourth.

While Ishpeming didn’t score in the final eight minutes, a running clock helped the Hematites get to their Final Four celebration that much quicker.

“It’s super special, we are all super excited, this is a big opportunity, we worked really hard for this,” Hemmer said. “A lot of people wanted to say ‘Poor Ishpeming, they had all this stuff change for them, they aren’t going to play good,’ but no, we strive against adversity and we fight through not having a lot of fans here because we weren’t able to get a bus down.

“We fight through small crowds, we fight through big crowds and we showed that tonight.”

To go along with Eagle’s 27 points, Hemmer poured in 21, Hares and Frankie Stetson each had five and Camby Gauthier added two points.

The Bulldogs had Robinson finish with seven points as Myhock finished with six.

Hemmer and Eagle were vital pieces to the Hematites’ state championship run in 2024 as sophomores, and they were ready to help lead the team again Thursday when they took on Morenci (26-1).

“To have (players like them) as your leaders is huge for any team,” Reichel said. “Morenci, they have two big players, I got them scouted (Tuesday) night, we had about five games of film to watch and get them dialed in.

“Sleepless nights are OK because I will sleep next week, if I can.”

Ben Murphy has previously covered high school tournament games in multiple sports held in the Lower Peninsula for The Mining Journal. He is an award-winning sportswriter and photographer and has worked remotely for the St. Ignace News.