Ishpeming High School's Dondre Yohe, left, dribbles past Negaunee’s Jacob Ennett, right, on Friday night at Gwinn High School. (Journal photo by Jess Makela)

GWINN — The Negaunee Miners avenged two straight years of district tournament defeats to Ishpeming Friday night as they defeated their neighboring rival 67-37 in a Class C district championship game.

Negaunee’s Dre Tuominen led all scorers with 24 points, while Trent Bell added 15. Jason Waterman (14) and Ennett (10) also scored double digits for the Miners.

Ishpeming was led by Dawson Dauphinais and Hart Holmgren, both of whom scored 14 points.

The Miners put the game out of reach in the second quarter, scoring the first 16 points in the frame. Negaunee eventually outscored the Hematites 23-4 in the quarter to take a commanding 38-19 lead into the half.

Negaunee head coach Dan Waterman said his team was playing a clean game plan during their surge.

“We were locking down on defense,” Waterman said. “We rebounded the ball better, and limited Ishpeming to smaller shots.

“Offensively we got on a break and earned some cheap buckets, and it boosted our confidence.”

The second quarter domination came after Ishpeming led for the majority of the first quarter.

The Hematites jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game, and although Negaunee continuously tied the game, Ishpeming head coach Anthony Katona said his team was feeling good after the first eight minutes.

“We worked the ball really well,” Katona said. “Negaunee started out with a press defense, and I thought we were doing a good job taking care of the ball.

“We got a few fast-break points off that and it gave us momentum.”

But the Miners defense stepped up in the second quarter and limited Ishpeming to just two buckets.

Jacob Ennett scored eight points in the frame alone for the Miners, while Trent Bell’s game came alive with six points.

“We had a slow start to the second quarter and it hindered us,” Katona said. “There were too many no pass or one pass shots. We didn’t rotate the ball, and Negaunee was getting rebounds and pushed it down the court.”

Things didn’t get much easier for the Hematites in the second half, as the teams traded baskets in the third quarter before Ishpeming was quieted to just three points in the fourth quarter as the Miners ran away with the 30-point win.

Waterman said he could breath a sigh of relief when the postseason win over Ishpeming was finally sealed.

“It was good to get the monkey off our backs,” Waterman said. “I’m really proud of our kids. They could have folded up midway through the season when we were on a three game skid, but they came back and worked hard to fix some things. We’ve been a better team since.”

Despite the emotional victory, Bell said his teammates didn’t allow the revenge factor to creep into their minds heading in.

“We wanted to put (the last two seasons) on the back burner and not think about them,” Bell said. “The win felt good. I wish it hadn’t have taken this long, but it feels great now.”

Negaunee now moves on to the regional tournament, where it will play Calumet in Escanaba at 7:30 p.m. on Monday.

Ray Bressette can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rbressette@miningjournal.net.