Proving to be a hard out in the post-season once again, the Munising boys basketball team certainly battled in their Division 4 district championship game with St. Ignace on Thursday, March 7. The Mustangs fell too far behind in the second half however, and this eventually led to a 58-42 loss at the hands of the Saints, in Sault Ste. Marie.

“We hung in there,” head coach Terry Kienitz said. “They made some runs and we fought back and they made another run and we fought back. We just didn’t make enough shots to complete a comeback. They shot the ball well and we didn’t have a great night shooting, and that didn’t help. They had some lucky bounces go their way, it seemed like the ball was always finding them.”

The Mustangs took early leads of 2-0 and 4-2 on buckets in the paint by Jack Dusseault. St. Ignace scored the final seven points of the first quarter to take a 9-4 lead and then started the second with a bucket as well to make it 11-4.

Trevor Nolan answered with an NBArange three pointer to trim that to 11-7 and Dusseault followed that with a bucket at the rim to pull the Mustangs with 11-9.

Things stayed close the rest of the half. A mid-range basket by T. Nolan left Munising down just 19-17, but the Saints scored twice in the final minute of the second, including a buzzer-beater by 1000-plus point scorer Jonny Ingalls and it was a 23-17 hole at the half.

“We played hard, played good defense for the most part as best we could against a team like that with an excellent ball player like Ingalls,” Kienitz said.

Dusseault started the second half by converting a spinning post move to the basket for two. T. Nolan also made a pair of free throws to draw the Mustangs within 23-21.

The Saints were able to take control of the game from here however. They used a 12-2 run to take a 35-23 lead; capping it off with a three point play by Ingalls. Ingalls led all scorers with 33 points, and has made a habit out of torching opposing defenses, despite their concentrated efforts at slowing him down.

“He’s so good shooting from anywhere,” Kienitz said. “You say let’s stop his three and let’s stop his driving and force a midrange, and he was hitting those all night. He has just enough good role players around him, so even if we stopped him the rest of his team stepped up.”

St. Ignace took a 40-27 lead into the fourth. A three ball by T. Nolan and a bucket by Tyler Nelson got them within single digits at 46-38, but St. Ignace responded with a hoop of its own and never let its led slip below 10 from there.

The Mustangs were led by Dusseault with 19 points, T. Nolan hit three treys in the game and finished with 17, Nelson added four and Nolan Connaughton was able to contribute two points.

“Jack played hard, he played well and did what he has been doing all year, going up and getting a ton of rebounds for us and finishing down low, making things tough and we need that to free up some other players,” Kienitz said. “They did a good job on Trevor and Carson Kienitz and keeping them from having open looks.”

On Tuesday, March 5 Munising won their regional semi-final game over Rudyard, 6951 in a contest held at Manistique.

“That was probably one of our best performances offensively and defensively,” Kienitz said. “We had four starters in double figures, so that is what we want. Winning games right now is a grind, so you take any win you can get. Playing well against Rudyard and putting on a good performance is something we can look back on.”

Munising had two first quarter threes by T. Nolan and they led 13-10 after one. Another three by Nolan and trey by Kienitz in the second helped them take a 33-21 lead at the half. They also led 51-34 entering the fourth.

1. Nolan hit four threes in the game and led the Mustangs with 22 points. Dusseault netted 15 points, Connaughton put in 15, Kienitz finished with 13 and Nelson added four.

The Bulldogs had Cam Peterson lead all scorers with 28 points and Jack Cifelli netted 10.

Munising wraps up the season with a 20-5 record. They’ll graduate just one player; Tyler Nelson.

“Obviously, I wanted to win a few more games so for it to end now sucks but I told these guys we got a lot of good out of this year and we only lose one senior on the team,” Kienitz said. “So, I am going to have a good group back and they are going to be hungry.”