Ishpeming, MI – February 21st, 2018 – The Ishpeming Hematites Boys High School Basketball team faced off against an undefeated Iron Mountain Mountaineers and successfully ended their season winning streak claiming victory with a final score of 53-47.
The game opened with a presentation to Hart Holmgren for his 1000th point during the last game against the Manistique Emeralds. With five games left in the season Hart is poised to take the Ishpeming all-time record that currently stands at 1103. Hart is averaging about 20 points a game and it looks difficult at this point for him not to claim the title. All eyes are square on the Hematites pushing forward to the end of the season in anticipation of a great climax.
Gaven Sundberg made the first score of this game putting the Hematites on the board, and the Mountaineers followed closely and quickly took the lead throughout the first frame in a fierce battle of fine athletes to finish out 12-10 Mountaineers. The action continued into the second in an incredibly low scoring game as each team put the stops and pressed eachother over every inch of the court, but ultimately the Mountaineers maintained their small lead of 20-19 to end the first half of the game.
The second half is where the Hematites exploded, they entered the game with ferocity and continued the neck and neck struggle with Iron Mountain. In terms of action there just wasn’t much to comment on, the Hematites came into the second half with a very low shot accuracy and no 3-pointers to speak of, but because both teams were so defensively locked together it was a slow crawl through the third in which the Hematites pulled ahead to lead by a single point with a score of 36-35.
The climax of this game was a nail biter, both teams approached the end of the final frame with a one possession lead being passed back and forth. The boys upped the tempo and managed to actually pull a shot accuracy of 51.1% by the end of the final quarter. The boys had only 7 turnovers to match the Mountaineers showing just how tight this game was. Hart Holmgren led the team score with a total of 25, followed by Darius Yohe with 14, and pulled the win in the final minute of play pulled ahead by 6 points, putting an abrupt stop to the Mountaineers streak and showing the world the Ishpeming Hematites mean business.
Hart Holmgren adds another 25 points to his record bringing him to a total of 1026.
The Ishpeming Hematites Girls are in action February 22nd when they take on the Kingsford Flivvers in Ishpeming as they push to close their season up. Join Mike Plourde and Bob Nadeau for all the action. Pregame is at 7:10PM and tip-off is at 7:30PM. Catch this exciting game on 98.3 WRUP and online at WRUP.com.
Listen to the game audio here: Ishpeming Hematites boys defeat Iron Mountain Mountaineers.mp3