With the regular season winding down, the Munising girls basketball team was looking to get tested ahead of the postseason.
The Mustangs faced those trials last week, and while they lost to both Marquette and Ishpeming, they were certainly good efforts against talented competition.
“Extremely tough part of our schedule last week with Class A Marquette and defending state champs Ishpeming on the docket, along with Superior Central in between them,” head coach Matt Mattson said.
The week started with a 58-53 loss at Marquette on Feb. 10.
Addie Bowerman hit for eight points in the first quarter, but the Sentinels led 19-13 after one. Bailey Corcoran had a huge second quarter for the Mustangs, scoring 13 of the team’s 16 points. The other points came on a triple from Dayne Behning, and Munising surged in front at the half, 29-27.
Marquette rallied to take a 47-40 lead entering the fourth, though, and held off the Mustangs from there.
Corcoran led the team with 19 points, Behning netted 17 and Bowerman finished with 15. Tessa Salo also contributed two points.
The Mustangs’ week ended with a home game against defending Division 4 state champion Ishpeming on Friday, which was a 52-45 loss.
The Hematites led 12-11 after one and 27-23 at the half. The Mustangs rallied to take a 35-34 lead entering the fourth, but they weren’t able to make it stick in the closing moments.
Bowerman led Munising with 24 points. Corcoran scored 19 points, and Behning added two.
“Marquette and Ishpeming were both competitive games,” Mattson said. “We had leads against both teams but also got down by 10 points against both teams. We need to focus on every possession because against both of these teams the games came down to about a half-dozen possessions. We have some good teams left on our schedule, and of course in the tournament we’re going to see fantastic teams. For us to be successful, we need to win those critical possessions.”
In between those contests was a 61-12 home win for Munising over Superior Central on Feb. 13.
“Superior Central is dealing with an injury to their best player, Sammy Johnson,” Mattson said. “We were playing without Liv Cotey, who sprained her ankle the night before, so we only had seven healthy bodies. Everyone played a lot of minutes, and everyone scored at least one bucket.”
The Mustangs had 17 points each from Behning and Corcoran, and Bowerman was right there as well with 15 points. Salo and Elizabeth Wing both had four points, and Kate Mattson and Madelyn Richardson contributed two points apiece.
The Cougars had four points each from Rory Hancock, Peyton Adams and Addi Frusti.
Munising (15-3 overall) was scheduled to host Stephenson on Wednesday (in a game rescheduled because of weather) and play at Rapid River on Thursday. Next week, the Mustangs play host to Gwinn on Monday and wrap up the regular season on Thursday with a home contest against Manistique.
SC (7-10) had three games on the schedule this week: at Carney- Nadeau on Monday, at home against Norway on Tuesday and at Stephenson on Thursday.
