The Munising Baptist boys basketball team had hoped to make a deep run in the Northern Lights League tournament over the weekend, in Rudyard. The Bobcats did get an opening round win over Grand Marais, but their run ended in the quarterfinals Friday, falling to Hannahville, 74-47.
“Hannahville came out shooting extremely well, and it didn’t slow down the entire first half,” head coach Paul Johns said. “We changed defenses a number of different times, but they found the holes in the zones, and they found the advantage they had when we played them man to man.”
The result was M-B facing deficits of 24-13 after one, 53-19 at the half and 67-23 entering the fourth.
The Bobcats went out on a high note though, saving their best quarter for last, where they scored 24 points.
“I’m proud of the kids that they kept hustling and never gave up even when the game was out of reach and most of them weren’t feeling very well,” Johns said. “We ran into a very talented team.”
They had Dylan Swift lead the way with 19 points, which brought his season total to an impressive 501 points. Michael Maloney hit double figures too, getting 12 points. Ethan Swift netted 10 points, Gabe Heyrman put in four and adding two was Ian Cross.
Munising Baptist finishes the season with a 7-14 record.
“Coming into this season, the biggest question to answer was “Who is going to fill the void of the senior we lost to graduation last year in terms of both leadership and in the scorebook,” Johns said. “I was hoping it would be a combination of role players expanding their roles, and growth of the younger kids. The lone senior on the team, Michael Maloney, definitely stepped up into the leadership role both on and off the court. A sophomore, Dylan Swift, tried to fill in the void in the score book. It was a season of growth. Coming into the season, five of our 10 players were in seventh-throughninth grades. There were definitely growing pains with the youth, but I’m hoping that benefits us next year and the years to come with that experience.”
Earlier in the day on Friday, M-B topped Grand Marais in the first round of the tournament, 50-36.
“Coming into this game, neither team knew what to fully expect, because both teams were battling illness within their teams,” Johns said. “Both teams struggled to produce points in the first half as the score was 22-13 at halftime. In the second half, we were able to up the tempo in transition on offense and get layups at a more regular pace.
Quarter scores in this one, all in favor of M-B were 9-7, 22-13 and 36-24.
The Bobcats were led by D. Swift with 32 points, E. Swift was able to put in 11, Maloney finished with five and adding two was Jonny MacArthur.
For the Polar Bears, Gabe Lawrence led the way with 15 points, Ethan Bell scored 12 and Nathan Irvine made three treys, accounting for his nine points.
“We came to battle, unfortunately we just couldn’t pull it out,” Grand Marais head coach Devin Lawrence said of the loss. “With our big man out sick and our top scorer duo picking up three fouls each in the first quarter, we just didn’t have enough on the floor but our adjustments were able to keep it close the whole game.”
