Midgets hold off Tigers

HURLEY - On the second Friday in a row, Hurley buried a rival early in the game.

After coming out strong in a win at Ironwood last week, the Midgets did the same against their Iron County rivals, Mercer, this week, winning 64-53.

The Midgets led 15-3 and 30-9 in the first half. Mercer reduced the deficit to single digits in the second half, but the Tigers didn't have an answer for the bigger Midgets, James Sukanen (6-6), who had 27 points and 16 rebounds, or guard Isaac DeCarlo, who scored 16 points.

"I was very happy with how things were going in the first half," Hurley coach Mike Swartz said. "We came out in the second half and patted ourselves on the back before the job was done. Credit Mercer, those kids kept fighting, kept working hard and gave us a run. It was too close for my liking."

The Tigers upset Drummond Tuesday, but their rivals to the north got the better of them Friday.

"We just came out flat," Mercer coach Adam Miller said. "Hurley's a tough team. We don't have anybody that can guard Sukanen. We have to shoot the lights out to beat this team and we didn't do that."

With Hurley up just 2-0, Midgets' guard Kohl Manzanares picked up his second foul.

But Isaac DeCarlo scored Hurley's next eight points, giving the Midgets a 10-3 advantage.

"He played well for us, especially in the first half, he hit some shots," Swartz said. "It's nice when we shoot the ball well and hit some 3s early in the game to keep defenses honest. If we start slow, don't hit our shots, they really focus on our inside game. Isaac jumpstarted us in the first half and got us going."

Sukanen scored the next seven points for Hurley, with two coming on putbacks to put the Midgets ahead 17-6.

Hurley built the lead as big as 21 points and led 33-16 at halftime.

Baskets by Sukanen and Manzanares to start the second half gave the Midgettes a 38-16 lead.

Mercer's Johnny Cassiani and DeCarlo traded 3s before Mercer's Alex Schmidt scored seven straight points by himself to pull the Tigers within 52-44 with 5:44 left.

That's as close as Mercer got, though. Tandrell Foster answered 20 seconds later with a bucket. Ahead 58-49 after Tarrin St. Germaine scored for Mercer, Manzanares slowed things down and used clock.

Mercer tried defenses centering on Sukanen and DeCarlo, but ultimately it dug too deep of a hole.

"I'm proud of the guys for the second half. We outscored them 37-31 second half," Miller said.

The Tigers were able to limit a bigger Drummond team to one shot earlier in the week. It couldn't do that against Sukanen and the Midgets. Sukanen had eight offensive boards.

"He gave us a great game inside, he was a tough matchup for them," Swartz said. "I really liked some of the things we did against their zone in the first half. We got the ball moving a little bit. Second half, we got a little complacent, got a little careless with the basketball. We had 14 turnovers in the second half, that's not a recipe for success. We didn't buckle, we made shots when we needed to, we're very fortunate to get this win."

Schmidt led Mercer with 24 points and St. Germaine had 16.

Hurley (9-8, 8-4) goes to Mellen tonight for a makeup game. The Midgets will likely be without Carson Thewis, who was injured during the game. Mercer (7-11, 4-10) goes to Phelps Monday.

Mercer - Tarrin St. Germaine 16, Johnny Cassiani 3, Alex Schmidt 24, Jake Hill 6, James Reichard 5. FTs: 9-15. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Schmidt 6, St. Germaine 1, Cassiani 1, Reichard 1.

Hurley - Isaac DeCarlo 16, Kohl Manzanares 8, Tandrell Foster 2, Justin Sukanen 1, James Sukanen 27, Jake Saari 4, Chris Rye 6. FTs: 4-9. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: DeCarlo 4, Manzanares 2.

Mercer 16 53

Hurley 33 64