By Journal Sports Staff

ISHPEMING — Practicing what their coach preaches, Westwood dug itself out of an early hole to defeat Manistique for the second time in a week in boys basketball action on Friday.

The Patriots fell behind 11-5 after one quarter and still trailed 22-21 at halftime before pulling ahead in the third quarter to take a 47-40 decision over the Emeralds.

“I preach to the guys all season that you just have to play hard for 32 minutes,” WHS head coach Chad Hewitt said. “Manistique out-physicaled us and they outplayed us in the first half.

“We made some adjustments at halftime, most of it on the defensive side of the ball. We wanted to start doing what we wanted to do, not be dictated by them.”

The Patriots improved to 3-10 overall and 2-6 in the Mid-Peninsula Conference while the Emeralds slipped to 1-14 and 0-11.

Westwood junior center David Delarye filled the stats sheet with a game-high 17 points and team-high 13 rebounds. Sophomore guard Blake Hewitt added 10 points as eight Patriots scored.

Nolan Armock paced Manistique with 12 points while fellow senior Darien Nichols had 10. The Emeralds also had eight players score.

Westwood also won the JV game, 47-30.

Munising 50, Mid Peninsula 37

At Munising, the Mustangs jumped out to a 15-5 lead after one quarter, but the Wolverines shaved the advantage in half by intermission, 23-18.

“They like to slow it down on offense,” Munising coach Terry Kienitz said about Mid Pen, “and then we’d get the ball and we’d rush to get it in there and force something.”

The Mustangs (13-2, 8-2 Skyline Central Conference) settled down in the third quarter to open up the game.

Munising’s Cade Contreras led all scorers with 18 points, while teammate Jesse Mattson contributed 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

The Mustangs shot a sizzling 19 of 22 (86 percent) from the free-throw line, including 14 of 16 in the fourth quarter. Contreras was 7 of 8 at the line in the final period.

Terry Bower paced Mid Pen with 14 points while teammate Bill Carlson had 11 points and eight rebounds.

Munising also won the JV game, 51-25.

Republic-Michigamme 68, Baraga 25

At Republic on Friday, A.J. Ball and Dylan Hanninen each scored 15 first-half points as the Hawks raced to a 49-15 halftime lead.

Ball finished with 21 points and Hanninen 19 as nine R-M players scored.

The Hawks improved to 7-10 overall and 5-9 in the Copper Mountain Conference while the Vikings fell to 0-14 and 0-10.

Baraga was paced by Joey Francois with eight points.

Republic-Michigamme 56, Lake Linden-Hubbell 46

At Republic on Thursday, a trio of players had the hot hand early as the Hawks raced to a 25-9 lead after one quarter.

Junior Dylan Hanninen scored nine points and Kasey Ball and A.J. Ball each had eight points in the early R-M outburst.

The Lakes started catching up in the second half, pulling to within 40-32 by the end of the third quarter before the Hawks made 7 of 11 free throws in the final period to hold them off.

Kasey Ball finished with 18 points and Hanninen 17, including 10 of 12 free throws. LL-H’s Connor Baccus led all scorers with 21 points, which included five 3-pointers, as his team made just 5 of 18 from the charity stripe.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.