Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By JASON JUNO
Ironwood — It’s been a tough start to 2025 for the GCC Samsons.
After a loss to Hibbing to start the calendar year, they lost a tough one at Mesabi Range, 77-76, last week. They returned home and picked up a nice win, 87-62 over UW-Baraboo Friday night, before losing the next afternoon, 89-78 to Central Lakes.
On Saturday, they finished with 78 points, but it was still a big scoring drought in the second half and the handling of a brash defense that cost them a chance to win.
Gogebic shot well in the first half and they took a 50-47 lead early in the second half on a 3 by Enrique Moreno-Bautista. But they didn’t score again over the next eight minutes, which allowed Central Lakes to take a commanding 68-50 lead.
The Samsons didn’t get good production from their starters, coach Dennis Mackey said.
“First half, our second squad came in and really did a good job moving the ball, hitting the shots and getting up and down the court,” Mackey said.
It all dried up after halftime.
“Early in the second half, we’d get one-and-done. We weren’t hitting shots. We had great looks and we just didn’t knock them in. That’s part of the game,” Mackey said. “We gotta make shots, we’re not skilled enough inside to go inside and power it in, we’re not big enough to go inside and power it in. We need to have that perimeter game going to open up the inside for us so we can get those mismatches or drives. Just didn’t get it today in the second half.”
Mackey credited Central Lakes’ aggressive defense in the second half, but there was more to it.
“We lost our cool a few times, got a little frustrated at times,” he said. “I was concerned about that, even before it happened, I talked to the guys about it. Unfortunately we succumbed to their constant in-your-face talking smack, JUCO style of basketball. I don’t coach that way, I don’t believe in that kind of basketball. It is what is, we just have to learn how to handle it because it happens with other teams as well.”
Kadin Baxter scored 12 points to lead the Samsons. Jalen Browning, Enrique Moreno-Bautista and Ben Salkauskas all had 11 and Bradyn Pieper finished with 10.
DeWayne Givens and Jayden Broadnax each scored 17 points for Central Lakes (9-8).
The Samsons won comfortably on Friday night, building on a 42-31 halftime lead.
“We played pretty well last night as a team and really worked the ball well,” Mackey said. They also ran the floor especially well.
Hernan Cortes led the Samsons with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Baxter finished with 14 points, Kaden Vardon 12 and Cori Johnson 10.
“Hernan Cortes really had a great game for us, really picked us up,” Mackey said. “We had good production from a lot of different guys and it was good to see. Baxter had a nice game last night, Cori had a nice game. We had good production from the starters, we didn’t quite enough of that today.”
On Wednesday, Jan. 8, GCC came back from a 10-point deficit early in the second half but couldn’t finish it off.
“It was actually an entertaining game to watch, it was up and down, back and forth,” Mackey said. “Little frustrated because we didn’t execute down the stretch. Our defense, we hung with it, stayed with it and made the stops when we had to, until the last stop.”
Mesabi won it on a drive to the basket.
“Guy made a heck of a scoop reverse layup, but the fact is, we gave them a dribble drive at the end to knock us off. We had a one-point lead,” Mackey said. “It was unfortunate, we had the ball before that and basically allowed them to foul us and the guy who allowed them to foul us stepped them to line and missed the free throw.”
Gogebic is missing X’Zavion McCoy, their leading scorer and, more importantly, their floor leader who’s been out for that stretch of games with a health concern. The Samsons are hoping to get the fantastic freshman back on the court sometime this season, Mackey said.
GCC (6-8) was to host Itasca Wednesday night with two more home games set for this weekend — Marshfield on Friday night and Northland CTC Saturday.
Saturday
Central Lakes — DeWayne Givens 17, Jakobe Jones 6, Kyan Reichhoff 13, Makieth Deng 6, Josh Rogers 7, Johnny Tong 7, Jaylen Young 2, Jayden Broadnax 17, Wylee Dauenbaugh 5, Logan Jackson 4, Devin Rowan 5. FTs: 15-25. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Givens 3, Jones 1, Reichhoff 1, Dauenbaugh 1.
GCC — Kadin Baxter 12, Jalen Browning 7, Kevin Frazier 7, Enrique Moreno-Bautista 11, Kaden Vardon 7, Bradyn Pieper 10, Ben Salkauskas 11, Hernan Cortes 11, Omar Bailey 2. FTs: 9-13. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: Baxter. 3-pointers: Moreno-Bautista 3, Pieper 2, Salkauskas 2, Baxter 2, Frazier 1, Vardon 1.
Central Lakes 47 89
GCC 44 78
Friday
UW-Baraboo — Payton Hoffman 4, Camron Morgan 10, Nick Consolina 12, Ben O’Brien 7, Dylan Brewster 10, Yontae Ball 7, William Reichhoff 3, Micah Smith 3, Cole Weyh 6. FTs: 4-8. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Weyh 2, Smith 1, Reichhoff 1, Ball 1, O’Brien 1, Consolina 1, Morgan 1.
GCC — Kadin Baxter 14, Jalen Browning 2, Kevin Frazier 9, Cori Johnson 10, Enrique Moreno-Bautista 5, Kaden Vardon 12, Bradyn Pieper 6, Ben Salkauskas 9, Hernan Cortes 17, Omar Bailey 3. FTs: 15-24. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Baxter 2, Moreno-Bautista 1, Vardon 1, Cortes 1, Bailey 1.
UW-Baraboo 31 62
Gogebic 42 87
Wednesday
GCC — Kadin Baxter 9, Jalen Browning 9, Kaden Vardon 2, Cori Johnson 21, Enrique Moreno-Bautista 17, Bradyn Pieper 2, Hernan Cortes 14, Tyson Klingman 2. FTs: 11-14. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Moreno-Bautista 5, Johnson 2, Baxter 1, Browning 1.
Mesabi — Leonard McClain 9, Tristan Coleman 16, Jamari Griffin 10, KeyVaughn Fields 10, Tahje Johnson 10, Khris Davis 2, Jayden Coney 6, Darren Smith 14. FTs: 10-15. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None. 3-pointers: Smith 2, Coney 1, Coleman 1, McClain 1.
GCC 39 76
Mesabi 40 77
