Escanaba, MI – February 15th, 2018 – The Ishpeming Hematites Girls High School Basketball team headed to Escanaba this evening to take on the Eskymos and came out with a victory with a final score of 73-60.
What opened to be an Escanaba dominated game turned against the Eskymos in the second half in an impressive show of skill by the Hematites as they wore down the Eskymo’s stamina and delivered a major comeback to take the game victory.
The Eskymos made the first basket of the game and drove the Hematites into a corner during the first quarter, the Hematites girls just couldn’t get any traction against the Eskymos and lost the first frame 16-25 Escanaba.
The second frame was a change in tempo for the Hematites, the girls worked a hard offense and cut down the Eskymos 9 point lead from the first down to just a two point game of 38-40 Escanaba in an incredible high scoring first half it seemed like both teams were pulling out all the stops to finish out the first half.
If basketball had a name it would probably still just be “basketball”, but the “Ishpeming Hematites” is a close second if you were to base the second half of this game on merit. The Hematites came back from a 12 point deficit in the start of the second frame to absolutely putting the belt to the Eskymos during the second half of the game. The tides turned as Ishpeming finished out the third with a dominating performance and a lead of 9 for a total of 61-52 in a remarkable script flip. 
The Ishpeming Hematites Girls went on in the final frame to defeat the Eskymos with a final score of 73-60, giving them a comfortable 13 point lead against an exhausted Escanaba team. Madijan Johns led the team score with an amazing 27 points, followed by Mariah Austin with 10. Ishpeming made 7 of their 8 free throws, had 18 game turnovers and produced 31 rebounds.
The Ishpeming Hematites Boys are back in action February 16th when they travel to take on the Manistique Emeralds who are still looking for their seasons first victory. Join the action with Tyler Young and Bob Nadeau on 98.3 WRUP. Pregame is at 7:10PM and tip-off is at 7:30.
Listen to tonight’s audio here: Ishpeming Hematites defeat Escanaba Eskymos.mp3
