Four locals, five state basketball champions to play in UP All-Star Classic

MARQUETTE — Five players who ended their high school careers with state basketball championships will play their final prep game Saturday.

The 30th annual U.P. All-Star Classic will be held at Marquette High School. It is the first time this game will be hosted by MHS, although the opening seven games in the series were held in Marquette, at Northern Michigan University.

The girls game begins at noon EDT and the boys game follows at 2 p.m. Admission is $5.

Skills contests — free throw and 3-point shooting and slam dunk — begin at 10:30. A breakfast, open to the public at $10 per person, will begin at 9 a.m. in NMU's Explorer Room.

The games are sponsored by the Upper Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame, with all proceeds going to the UPSHF scholarship program that awards four U.P. student/athletes a $500 scholarship for each of their four years in college.

All-Stars Lexie Rowe and Ellen Twardzik helped Calumet win the school's first state basketball championship, beating Flint Hamady 57-49 for the Class C crown. They will play on the North team, which will be coached by Jeff Twardzik, the Calumet coach who capped his first season at the helm with the title victory. He is the father of Ellen Twardzik.

The South team will have two players from Class D state champion St. Ignace, Margo Brown and Sarah Smith. Brown, a three-time U.P. golf champion, will play basketball at Ferris State University. Brown is one of the four UPSHF scholarship winners this year.

The Saints, who have won five state titles since 1999, erased a 20-point third-quarter deficit to stun Pittsford 64-60 in overtime.

Coaching the South girls will be Matt Mattson of Munising.

Ewen-Trout Creek’s Molly Niemi will play for the North while Watersmeet’s Frannie Zelinski will suit up for the South.

Headlining the boys All-Stars will be Rob Granquist of Class D state champion North Central. The Jets, who crushed Morenci 67-47, finished 27-0 to win their first title since 1984. Granquist, who will play football at Concordia, Ill. College, was the All-U.P. Class D quarterback last fall.

Coaching the South boys will be Dave Duncan of Cedarville and Bucky Johnson of Iron Mountain. Duncan, who directed the Trojans to the Class D state crown in 2007, will be coaching in his final game. He retired after the season, finishing with a sterling 429-166 record over 25 years.

Duncan was the Associated Press Class D state coach of the year in 2014-15. The Cedarville gym floor was named in his honor earlier this year. The gym is named in honor of his father, John.

His son, two-time Class D all-state selection Joey Duncan, will play for his dad one final time. Joey Duncan is the school's all-time scoring leader with 1,755 points. He will play basketball at Alpena Community College.

His twin brothers, Jason and Jordan, played in the 2008 all-star game in Escanaba. A sister, Jessie, played in the 2009 all-star game and is Cedarville's top girls scorer with 1,449 points.

Jack Kumpula of Lake Linden-Hubbell will coach the North boys.

Bessemer’s Lance Berwald and Ironwood’s Jake DiGiorgio will both play for the North.

The 2015 season is only the second time that three U.P. teams won high school basketball state titles. In 1956, when only boys played prep hoops, Stephenson won Class B, Crystal Falls took Class C and Chassell won its first of three straight Class D titles.

The all-star rosters

North girls: Ann Diepenhorst and Bree Swan, Sault Ste. Marie; Sydney Dillinger, Houghton; Shayla Huebner, Liz Kurin and Hunter Viitala, Marquette; Haley Makela, Jeffers; Molly Niemi, Ewen-Trout Creek; Lexie Rowe and Ellen Twardzik, Calumet. Coach, Jeff Twardzik, Calumet.

South girls: Hunter Branstrom, Mid Peninsula; Michelle LaFave, Escanaba; Alexis St. Cyr, Gladstone; Baylee Wells, North Central; Margo Brown and Sarah Smith, St. Ignace; Miranda Jacobson, North Dickinson; Ellie Olsen, Gwinn; Maria Wiltzius, Kingsford; Frannie Zelinski, Watersmeet. Coach, Matt Mattson, Munising.

North boys: Lance Berwald, Bessemer; Connor Brazeau and Vejas Grazulis, Marquette; Jake DiGiorgio, Ironwood; Terrence Fuller, Sault Ste. Marie; Nate Gockenbach, Houghton; Brett Poissant and Tyler Roose, Lake Linden-Hubbell; Ben Stasewich, Munising; Zack Steikar, Rudyard. Coach, Jack Kumpula, Lake Linden-Hubbell.

South boys: Bruce Bailey, DeTour; Brad Causley and Joey Duncan, Cedarville; Tyler DeMars, Big Bay de Noc; Lee Graff, Forest Park; Rob Granquist, North Central; Dan Harrington, Kingsford; Philip Koski, Republic-Michigamme; Sam Molnar, Escanaba; Jake Thomann, Iron Mountain; Tyler Wells, Gladstone. Coaches, Dave Duncan, Cedarville; Bucky Johnson, Iron Mountain.