Ironwood defeats Speedgirls in district semifinal

By JASON JUNO

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Ironwood --- Ironwood came out ready to defend its home court in last week's MHSAA Division 4 District 97 semifinal.

They dominated from the start and beat Bessemer 68-37.

"They were tournament ready tonight," Ironwood coach Jesse Mackey said. "Every girl was locked in and ready to go."

The Red Devils played well on both ends of the court. They attacked offensively from the start, getting to the foul line six times and taking a 24-8 lead after the first quarter.

"Super hot start, which is critical for us in any of our successful games," Mackey said. "And the girls were getting to the rack hard and they got to the free throw line a lot, so it was great to see."

Bessemer advanced to the semifinal by controlling the inside against Wakefield-Marenisco. Ironwood didn't let that happen; they held Bessemer's bigs to just six points combined and the Speedgirls only had 13 at the half.

"Defensive game plan was to shut down their bigs and really take away baseline," Mackey said. "And I thought Jaelyn (Novascone), Bree (Delich), Jada (Godfrey) all did a great job of that tonight."

It wasn't so much about matching up with them better than other teams.

"It was really just about positioning tonight and the girls had great position and did not want the ball to get into them," Mackey said.

Bessemer coach Jordy Chiapuzio said he knew it would be harder to get inside against Ironwood.

"We knew from previous matchups that Novascone was going to challenge Audrey (Stone), so we tried to take advantage of Maddie (Guglielmotto) a little bit on the other side. We weren't fortunate enough to get it into her too many times," he said. "Hat's off to Ironwood. They played a great game. They rattled us early and we weren't able to recover."

Hanna Vaughn led the Red Devils with 25 points, Jaelyn Novascone had 19 and Akira Ruotsala 10. Ruotsala had a team-high seven assists and Novascone had six rebounds and three steals.

Brooke Stanislawski finished with 15 points in her final game for the Speedgirls.

"They had a lot of easy buckets. Good job on their end getting to the rim," Chiapuzio said. "We weren't at our best tonight. It's unfortunate, but it is what it is."

Bessemer finished the season at 8-16.

"I'm very proud of this group of girls, they never gave up," Chiapuzio said. "The group of seniors was a good group of leaders."

Ironwood improved to 17-6.

Bessemer --- Keira Graham 7, Kaedyn Hendrickson 4, Brooke Stanislawski 15, Maddie Guglielmotto 2, MaKayla Montgomery 5, Audrey Stone 4. FTs: 12-19. Fouls: 21. Fouled out; Hendrickson. 3-pointers: Graham 1, Stanislawski 1, Montgomery 1.

Ironwood --- Hanna Vaughn 25, Maleah Maki 2, Akira Ruotsala 10, Riley Graser 4, Olivia Vandenburg 1, Bree Delich 1, Jaelyn Novascone 19, Lainey Rubatt 2, Jada Godfrey 4. FTs: 14-26. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Vaughn 5, Ruotsala 1.

Bessemer 8 13 27 37

Ironwood 24 40 55 68