Westwood’s Blake Hewitt gets fouled by West Iron County’s Nathan Thomson as he looks to take a shot in the third quarter. (Photo courtesy of Daryl T. Jarvinen)

By Journal Sports Staff

MUNISING — The Munising High School girls varsity basketball team opened its season with a win Monday night behind a 26-point performance from senior Michaela Werner, sending the Mustangs over Engadine 55-24.

Munising head coach Matt Mattson said it took a while for his offense to get shots to fall, but a strong defensive performance early in the game helped off-set that issue.

“We started out well defensively and that always helps,” he said. “Our offense wasn’t too good to start but we played better in the second and third quarters.”

The defense indeed started strong, shutting out the Eagles 10-0 in the first quarter before pulling ahead 29-7 at halftime.

The Mustangs never looked back from there, scoring 18 more points in the third to go up 47-14 after three.

Engadine outscored Munising 10-8 in the fourth, but it wasn’t near enough as the Mustangs held the safe lead the rest of the way.

Munising shot 21 of 56 from the field and went 13 of 28 at the charity stripe. Engadine was 9 of 54 shooting and 5 of 11 at the free throw line.

Mickaela Deace led Engadine with 15 points. The Eagles collected 31 rebounds with Deace grabbing seven while Munsing had 41 with Werner getting 10.

Munising travels to Superior Central on Wednesday.

BR-Harris 52, Gwinn 42

At Harris, The Bark River-Harris girls’ basketball team kicked off its season with a 52-42 win over Gwinn here Monday. The Broncos pulled away late in the game to seal the win.

“It was a total team effort,” Broncos’ coach Josh Eagle said. “We used our full court pressure and were on the attack all night. That’s our goal in every game we play — be in attack mode and run our opponent out of the gym.”

The Modeltowners (0-1) started off the game hot, scoring 18 points in the first quarter. However, the Broncos buckled down on defense and held them to just four field goals in the second and third quarters combined.

“They (Modeltowners) started out hot,” Eagle said. “But free throws is really what kept them in the game in the second quarter. We committed some silly fouls that let them hang around.”

The Modeltowners held a one-point lead at the half and trailed by just four points entering the fourth. However, the Broncos were able to wear them down and pulled away by forcing lots of turnovers with their full court press and hit some big shots in the last three minutes to seal the win.

“They (Modeltowners) had lots of trouble handling our press,” Eagle said. “We go 9-10 players deep every game and we just wore them down. Our players are really unselfish.”

The Broncos (1-0) had two freshmen start, including Cara Zawacki who scored 11 points and made a huge impact on the game.

“She (Zawacki) made a lot of big plays down the stretch,” Eagle said. “She really fought hard for a freshman playing her first game on varsity.”

Eagle was proud of his team after the win, but also gave lots of credit to Gwinn.

“That’s a tough basketball team (Gwinn),” he said. “They’re big, a lot of their guards are big. Picking up a win against a team that is in our district is big for us.”

Hailee Demers led the Broncos with 13 points and Zawacki chipped in with 11.

Brooke Manor led the way for Gwinn with 18 points, while Marissa Delmont added 16.

The Broncos’ jayvee team defeated Gwinn 49-25.

Stephenson 66,

Superior Central 17

At Stephenson, the Cougars were led by Jada Johnson with seven points, but it wasn’t enough in the blowout loss. Samantha Thompson added six points while Elizabeth Molag had four.

No other information was available.

Superior Central hosts Munising on Wednesday.

Boys basketball

Westwood 53, WIC 31

The Westwood High School boys varsity basketball team found itself back in the win column Monday night with a 53-31 victory over West Iron County at the Patriots’ gym.

Westwood is now 2-1 on the season after senior guard Nathan Beckman led the way with a 14-point performance.

Patriots head coach Chad Hewitt credited his team’s defense for a strong, complete game, while the offense answered the call to step things up in the second half.

“I thought our kids played well defensively,” he said. “We had a little bit of a lead but the message to my kids at halftime was to bring up the intensity a notch. We came out of the locker room and knocked down a couple of shots.

“Give West Iron County credit. They’re long, athletic and are well-coached. That’s what we prepared for and in the end we knocked down more shots than they did.”

The Patriots held a narrow 10-9 lead after one quarter and took a 20-17 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Asked to take things up a notch, the Patriots offense did just that, outscoring the Wykons 17-5 in the third to pull ahead 37-22 after 24 minutes of play.

Westwood added 16 in the fourth to keep pace and cruise to the victory.

The Patriots shot 18 of 42 from the field and had 31 rebounds with senior forward Blake Hewitt collecting 10. Junior guard Ty Alderton added 13 points while senior guard Zachary Niemi had nine and Hewitt eight.

Westwood hosts Ishpeming on Friday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Spitza and The Escanaba Daily Press. Email Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.