Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
Ironwood — The Ewen-Trout Creek girls are second in the first Upper Peninsula basketball poll of the season.
The Panthers, ranked behind St. Ignace in the Division 4 poll, started the season at 7-1 with their only loss coming at the top-ranked big school, Negaunee. E-TC has a pair of top-five matchups coming up this month with a trip to No. 3 Lake Linden-Hubbell Thursday and a home game against No. 5 L’Anse on Jan. 21.
Perennial power St. Ignace got more first-place votes, four, than E-TC, which had two. The Saints’ only loss is also to a team ranked in the big-school poll, No. 4 Sault Ste. Marie, 50-49. The Blue Devils’ only loss is a 50-43 defeat to downstate Chelsea, a Division 2 school with a 6-0 record.
E-TC and St. Ignace won’t meet in the regular season. Their only meeting would be in the state quarterfinal in Gladstone come March. That would have happened last year if it weren’t for Ishpeming, which knocked out the Panthers in the regional final and went on to win the state title.
Three of the five ranked D-4 teams are from the Copper Mountain Conference with a fourth, Baraga, receiving a vote. The Vikings then defeated Calumet (fifth in the big school poll) 43-37 Tuesday night, after the poll was conducted.
No. 5 L’Anse is the third ranked league team. The Purple Hornets also beat Calumet, 52-51. Their lone loss, like E-TC and St. Ignace, is to a ranked large-school team, No. 3 Houghton (77-67).
Houghton also beat visiting LL-H 71-55 Tuesday night after the poll was conducted, giving the Lakes their first loss of the season.
Munising is fourth with its undefeated record. They haven’t played any ranked teams and have won blowouts except for a 47-42 victory over Gwinn (1-4).
Negaunee and Gladstone are the only unbeaten teams in the Division 1-3 girls poll. They will meet in Gladstone on Jan. 28.
The Miners have wins over E-TC, Houghton (57-46) and Calumet (56-35). Gladstone also beat Houghton 39-36 and they took down Ishpeming 51-47. Ishpeming moved up to Division 3 this year and received votes in the big-school poll. Their other loss is to Calumet, 52-32.
The Forest Park boys are the unanimous No. 1 in the Division 4 boys poll. The Division 2 8-player football state champions appear to be the best small-school basketball team in the U.P. at this fairly early point in the season.
The Trojans beat No. 2 Dollar Bay 67-49 and No. 4 Norway 65-54. After the poll was conducted Monday, the Trojans lost to big-school No. 2 Kingsford 56-39.
Forest Park is the only loss for the Blue Bolts, who beat Houghton 74-70 in overtime.
Pickford is third with Norway and North Central tied for fourth. Four teams received votes, including Copper Mountain Conference teams Baraga and L’Anse. The Jets fell to North Dickinson, one of the other four to get votes, 56-27, after the poll was finished.
Baraga lost to Dollar Bay (69-49) and North Central (42-39), but they beat L’Anse (64-57) and Ewen-Trout Creek (56-53). L’Anse also lost to Houghton, 74-46. The Purple Hornets were defeated in Ironwood Tuesday after the poll was taken.
Marquette earned all six first-place votes in the Division 1-3 poll after they beat Kingsford 58-53 in a battle of the two best teams in the U.P. Friday night.
Marquette’s only two losses came to Traverse City Central and T.C. West by a combined seven points. They beat all of the other top-five teams in the U.P. — No. 2 Kingsford, No. 3 Westwood (75-54), No. 4 Iron Mountain (67-47) and No. 5 Negaunee (71-28).
Westwood handed Iron Mountain its other loss, 61-56 and also beat Munising, which received votes in the poll, 64-51. Negaunee lost to Kingsford 55-26 and Marquette 71-28, but they beat Westwood 77-76 in double overtime. Besides Negaunee, Westwood fell to Kingsford 57-50 and Marquette 75-54 for its three losses.
