Ishpeming, MI – December 13th, 2019 – The Ishpeming Hematites Boys Basketball team welcomed cross-town rivals, the Westwood Patriots, into their gym Friday night. Both Ishpeming and Westwood have first year head coaches in George Niemi and Scott Syrjala, but both are very familiar with this rivalry, Niemi and Syrjala are both members of the Jeff Olson coaching tree. Both teams fought hard and the game was close until the fourth, when Westwood would break out to win the game.
Westwood would come out hot to start the game, a few quick baskets put the Patriots up 8-0 early. Jacob Kugler got Ishpeming on the board about half way through the first quarter with a corner three to cut the lead down to five. Taylor Dellangelo found himself on the line right after to extend the lead, 10-3. Both teams started trading baskets as Kugler buried a jumper, but a layup by Westwood would maintain the Patriot seven-point lead at 12-5. Westwood found themselves in foul trouble as a team, with a minute to go in the first, the Patriots had seven team fouls on six different players. After a nice spin-move for a layup by Otto Swanson, Breck Bell sunk a shot to tie the game at 12 with under 30 seconds to go. Taylor Dellangelo came down the court and dropped a shot in at the buzzer to give Westwood the twopoint advantage, 14-12, at the end of the quarter.
Westwood dropped in a quick shot to start the second, as well as scoring one from the line to extend their lead to three. The second quarter would feature a lot of fouls from both sides. Kugler was able to buried another deep shot to tie the game, on the next possession, Breck Bell was able to fight through contact and convert an and-one to give Ishpeming their first lead, 20-17. A minute later, Bell found himself on the other side of the foul, giving Zach Carlson the three-point-play, tying the game at 20. Carlson would drop in four more form the line to give Westwood a four-point lead. Taylor Dellangelo would finally help Carlson by making two shots at the line to extend the lead to six. Ishpeming would stop the bleeding after knocking down two short shots and Ben Pruett would put in two from the line to tie it at 26 all. Taylor Dellangelo would go down the court after Ishpeming tied to the game to nail a deep three, putting the Patriots up three, the next time down, Dellangelo would drop in a layup to extend to five with just over a minute to go in the half and that would hold up, Westwood 32, Ishpeming 27 at the half. Dellangelo had 13 and Zach Carlson chipped in 12 for the Patriots at the half, Jacob Kugler lead the way for Ishpeming with 11. Westwood was 11 of 13 at the line.
In the third frame, Kugler would drop in a quick bucket on the first possession of the half, but that would be the only bucket for the first couple minutes. Zach Beckman and Mason Mariuzza found themselves with four fouls each early in the half. John Corkin would drop a shot to cut the Westwood lead to one with four minutes to go in the third. Zach Carlson would make two more at the line before Jacob Kugler hit another shot from down town to tie the game at 34 with just over two minutes to go in the third. Mariuzza would break the tie shortly after with a nice put-back, next time down the court, Mariuzza would knock down a three of his own for a solo, 5-0 run. Zach Carlson would find the bottom of the net with under 30 seconds to give Westwood the 41-34 advantage at the end of the penultimate quarter.
Ishpeming and Westwood both had a slow start the final quarter, with just under five minutes to go, Westwood had a commanding, 45-34 lead. Eric Anderson would find his way on the scorer’s sheet as he sunk two shots at the line for the Patriots. Breck Bell would finally get Ishpeming on the board in the fourth with an and-one play, he would miss the free throw, 47-36, Westwood. It would be too-little, too-late for the Hematites however as the Patriots would continue to extended their lead and Ishpeming couldn’t get their shots to fall and three Hematites would foul out. Westwood would walk away with the win, 59-48. Zach Carlson lead Westwood with 23.
Join Tyler Young Monday, December 16th as the Ishpeming Hematites Girls Basketball team takes on West Iron County. Catch the pregame show around 7 on 98.3 WRUP.
