ISHPEMING, MI – February 26th, 2020 – Ishpeming Hematite boys basketball welcomed the Modeltowners of Gwinn to town Wednesday for a special night. Both teams would honor the late, great, Dion Brown with custom warmups, he coached for both schools in his career. The last time these two squads met, the final score was 51-50 in favor of the Hematites, the Modeltowners were out for revenge. The Hematites wouldn’t let Gwinn take this one, Ishpeming would get the win, 70-63.
Jacob Kugler would get the scoring started, the Hematites would win the tip and Kugler would score from the low post. Jayce Kipling would be next to get in on the action, the Hematites would take a quick four point lead in the first two minutes.
The Modeltowners would get their first shot to fall at the five minute mark of the first quarter and they would follow it up with another make. The two sides would trade baskets and it would be 12-7 at the end of the first.
Ishpeming would open the second with two three-pointers by Jacob Kugler, Gwinn would make a shot between those makes, Griffin Argall would make a nice layup after that, 20-9, Ishpeming with six minutes to play in the first half. The Hematites would keep rolling and would expand their lead to 19 with three minutes to go.
A 15-0 run for Ishpeming was ended by a pair of free throws from the Modeltowners, 30-11 Hematites, two minutes to go in the half. Gwinn would return some of the damage and go on a 9-1 run of there own in under a minute.
At the half, the Hematites would lead by the score of 33-18.
In the third, the Gwinn Modeltowners would get on the board early and often. The strong play that Ishpeming showed in the first half seemed to vanish in the first half of the third. Gwinn would outscore Ishpeming 12-6 in the first four minutes of the quarter and it would be 39-30, Ishpeming.
The Gwinn run would continue, cutting the lead down to six at one point. Ishpeming would finally get a couple shots to fall, a three-point-play by Jacob Kugler would put the Hematites back up 11. 49-38, Hematites lead heading into the fourth.
Gwinn would continue to mount a come back as they would get on the board first in the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to nine. Both sides would leave it all on the floor in this one. Ishpeming would covert a shot, but the Modeltowners had a response to everything the Hematites would dish out, with four minutes to go, it was 60-54.
Reid Hill would foul out with three minutes to go, the Gwinn bench was then assessed a technical foul which resulted in four straight free throws attempts by the Hematites, they would make three of the shots and go up nine.
With 1:30 to go in the fourth, the Ishpeming lead was six, but Hematites would go to line to shoot two, they would covert both shots, from there, the Hematites would seal the win, 70-63.
Join Tyler Young and Bob Nadeau Thursday, February 27th as the Ishpeming Hematite girls face off against Kingsford for their final regular season game of the year. The Pregame show will start around 6:45pm on 98.3 WRUP.
Listen to a recording of the live broadcast HERE.
