Fully 60% — three out of five — of the All-U.P. Dream Team came from Ishpeming and Negaunee, with another 10 players who landed on divisional First and Second Teams coming from The Mining Journal’s coverage area that also includes Alger, Baraga, Schoolcraft and Luce counties.

The UPSSA met for its annual girls and boys basketball meeting at Northern Michigan University in Marquette on March 30.

One area player, senior Jenessa Eagle of Ishpeming, barely lost out on giving Marquette County a slam dunk of the top basketball players in the peninsula.

Just a few hours after picking senior Ethan Marta of Westwood as Mr. U.P. Basketball, Eagle lost a narrow 10-7 vote to become Miss U.P. Basketball.

Ishpeming’s Mya Hemmer, left, and Jenessa Eagle, right, double team Bark River-Harris ball handler Emma Zawada as she goes up for a shot during their high school girls basketball game played at the Hematites gym in Ishpeming on Feb. 24. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Eagle had already been voted U.P. Division 4 Player of the Year in quite a landslide, then went up against Gladstone senior Lillie Johnson for the U.P. Player of the Year honor, more commonly known as Miss U.P. Basketball.

Johnson, who led the Braves to an 18-4 record, gained just a few more votes than Eagle for the gold standard of honors at the meeting.

Those two girls players — no, Marta wasn’t allowed to horn in on these honors — were chosen for the All-U.P. Dream Team, being joined by Eagle’s Hematite teammate, senior Mya Hemmer, Negaunee junior Gretel Johnson and sophomore Bree Besonen of Ewen-Trout Creek.

Their four teams combined to lose a total of eight games throughout the regular season, including tournaments, and finished 1-2 in the Divisions 1-3 and Division 4 voting of the final UPSSA weekly polls.

Three more losses by the four teams came in their MSHAA tournaments, since Ishpeming was “unable” to lose a game. Instead, the Hematites marched all the way through seven games of the D-4 tourney undefeated until they emerged with their second state championship in three years with a 48-28 victory over Portland St. Patrick at Michigan State University in East Lansing on March 21.

Negaunee's Gretel Johnson, left, is guarded by Westwood’s Addelyn Hallum during their game played at the Patriots’ gym on Jan. 16. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Eagle and Hemmer were each part of both titles, starting as sophomores in 2024 and key seniors in this year’s run.

Eagle, a 5-foot-10 point guard, had some gaudy numbers this year — per-game averages of 24.4 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.7 steals and 3.4 assists.

She was named Player of the Year in the West PAC and shared that honor with Johnson in the Mid-Peninsula Conference. She was also named to each league’s All-Defensive Team.

“With (Gladstone’s) Lillie Johnson likely also considered for U.P. Player of the Year, she and Jenessa have very similar stats,” Ishpeming head coach Ryan Reichel said in comments supporting her nomination. “Jenessa has a record that no one has among the nominees — she has been a state champion for two years.

“No one can match what she has done career-wise. At the end of the day, she has only won!”

Hemmer, a 6-2 center who along with Besonen was also nominated as Division 4 Player of the Year, managed an astounding 10.5 rebounds and 5.8 steals a game to go with other averages of 16.6 points, two steals and 1.5 blocked shots each contest.

She was named the Defensive Player of the Year in both the West PAC and M-PC, also garnering Dream Team in the West PAC and First Team in the M-PC.

“Her stats alone make her a Dream Teamer, plus being on the only U.P. team to make a quarterfinal,” Reichel said right after the Hematites’ quarterfinal win about his player who be playing volleyball at NCAA Division I Baylor.

Johnson, a 5-7 guard, posted averages of 12.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 3.0 steals a game on a Miners team that won both the West PAC and M-PC with one-loss records, its only regular season setback part of a split of two games with Ishpeming.

She was named to the West PAC Dream Team and M-PC First Team.

“Gretel made the transition late in the fall to point guard after an injury to another player,” Negaunee head coach Mike O’Donnell said in his comments supporting Johnson’s nomination. “She took it upon her shoulders to be the quarterback of the team.

“Gretel also typically guarded the opponents’ ‘shiftiest’ player and expended a lot of energy on both ends of the floor. She has such an explosive first step and gets to the rim very well.”

The big honors for area teams didn’t stop with individual players, however.

By acclimation — no vote was necessary — Negaunee was chosen the Team of the Year in Divisions 1-2, Menominee in Division 3 and Ishpeming in Division 4, while the Miners’ O’Donnell won the same way as Coach of the Year in Divisions 1-3.

Ishpeming’s Reichel, though, won a quite decisive vote as Coach of the Year in Division 4, a 13-4 tally against Sarah Johnson of Newberry.

O’Donnell was noted for leading a Negaunee team that was 21-1 in the regular season to the Division 2 regional semifinals before a 49-42 loss to Petoskey unexpectedly ended a second try in three years to get to MSU. Two years earlier, at the same time Ishpeming was winning its first state title, Negaunee made it to the D-2 semifinals before bowing out.

The most points the Miners allowed in game this season was 51, and 13 times in 25 games (a 23-2 final record) NHS kept an opponent to 30 points or less.

Reichel, who

stepped down as Ishpeming coach after the state final, led Ishpeming to a 25-3 record, its only three losses to Division 2 teams Negaunee, Gladstone and Houghton. Those three opponents had a combined record of 55-11 in the regular season, and Ishpeming also won a game vs. Negaunee and Gladstone.

Newberry’s Johnson was lauded for a nifty 19-3 record on a team regularly starting a freshman, two sophomores, a junior and senior.

The Indians also won all three times against St. Ignace, a traditional U.P. power that was a bit down this year, but a school Newberry hadn’t beaten three times in close to 30 years.

Gladstone’s Lillie Johnson, Miss U.P. Basketball and a 6-foot senior, shared M-PC Player of the Year honors with Eagle while also winning Great Northern Conference Player of the Year.

She had per-game averages of 24.7 points, 12 rebounds, 4.1 steals and 2.8 assists, totaling 2,185 points and 1,257 rebounds in her varsity career.

She’s headed to NCAA Division I Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Besonen, a 5-4 sophomore, was named MVP of the Copper Mountain Conference. She averaged 17 points, 4.5 rebounds, four assists, four steals and just one turnover a game to post a 4-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

She also shot 45% on 3-pointers and 61% on 2-pointers and has 1,236 points in her varsity career, which ranges back to seventh- or eighth-grade as her school is small enough to be allowed to do that.

Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.