The Northern Lights League tournaments are this Friday and Saturday at Hannahville, with nine teams competing for a conference championship. The tournament will also mean the end of the line for numerous teams too small to be in the MHSAA district tournament, including Grand Marais and Munising Baptist.
The Polar Bears enter the tournament as the lowest seed, facing off in a play-in game with the Beaver Island Islanders. Both teams are winless on the season so far, and the game will be played at a neutral site, so home designation is just a formality. The teams were set to play each other earlier this season, but were unable to travel due to weather.
“They’re a pretty young team too, so it will be competitive,” Grand Marais Head Coach Devin Lawrence said.
Grand Marais has only one junior on the roster, so many of the players haven’t experienced a win with the basketball program. Lawrence said that getting a chance to get your first win in a postseason game would be beneficial.
“Our program being young is one thing, but until you get that win and you feel it, it’s hard to keep trying,” he said.
The winner of Grand Marais and Beaver Island would face Paradise. The Rockets are a senior-led squad with Dominic Nallette, Seth Mills and Chris Planck providing the experience. Paradise has not won a NLL tournament game in over a decade, but beat both play-in teams this season.
Due to the double bye structure of the NLL tournament, the Polar Bears, Islanders or Rockets would play the Munising Baptist Bobcats. Finishing the season at 7-5, the Bobcats are the fourth seed after the regular season. Led by senior Ryan Swift, Munising Baptist beat Paradise in the regular season finale on Tuesday 49-44.
“The scouting report is fresh,” Bobcats Head Coach Paul Johns said. “We might have to mess with the positioning of some of the players, getting the guards into the corner to drive a little bit more or moving the bigs out a bit. Different players have strong suits and hopefully they’ll be set for the tournament.”
The Bobcats are looking to shake off a heartbreaking loss in the 4-5 matchup last year, where they lost 46-30 to Ojibwe.
“We need to just remember how bad last year’s tournament went for us. We can’t take anything for granted,” Johns said.
Awaiting the winner of that game will be top seed Maplewood Baptist. Out of Kinross, the Black Bears are 13-5 and are projected to be one of the more competitive teams in the tournament.
On the other side of the bracket, Mackinac Island and Ojibwe will play in the 6-7 matchup with the winner advancing to play Hannahville in the quarterfinals. Big Bay de Noc is the second seed with one of those four teams advancing to the finals. If the two Black Bear programs in Big Bay and Maplewood meet up in the championship, it could be a preview of a District 101 opening round contest, as both teams are in the same district with Munising and Superior Central.
