Mid-Peninsula Conference Composite Basketball Schedule: Feb. 23rd – Feb. 28th

Does anybody really want to go to Negaunee after their dismantling of Marquette?

MARQUETTE, MI – 2/23/2015 – We’ve finally arrived to the final week of the regular season for the girls, and with just an extra week for the guys, we are nearing the end for a few basketball careers.  While every athlete & parent thinks their kid is going to play some college basketball somewhere, the truth is… the odds are the odds, and they’re bad odds.  Per the NCAA, roughly one in thirty senior boys (≈3.3%) will go on to play college basketball, and the numbers for girls aren’t much better at ≈3.7%.  To put that in perspective, of the entire MPC boys/girls starting line-ups, we might have three players who will be suiting up for a college team next year in basketball.  Men’s basketball has the lowest percentage of seniors going on to play at the NCAA level with their ≈3.3%, while Men’s Ice Hockey is the highest at ≈11.3%, which is quite high, but there are roughly fifteen times more senior boy’s basketball players than boy’s hockey players, so there still isn’t much there.  The point of this isn’t to discourage kids from trying to play at the next level, that just isn’t my game.  The point is that if you are a senior athlete, or even a parent/friend/coach of a senior athlete, enjoy this week.  Enjoy suiting up for your school, and enjoy that locker room environment that you were sure would never end, because it does.  It’s something that every kid doesn’t want to listen to, but every adult laments.  Just take the advice with a grain of salt or maybe as just one of the many opinions out there:  ENJOY IT!

The Knights are looking to finish this season with 13 wins, but unfortunately for them, six of their seven losses have been IN conference.

Taking a look at last week in girl’s basketball we had some pretty good ball games.  Iron Mountain & Ishpeming continued their high levels of play and go into the final week of play vying for the other to slip up to gain conference supremacy.  Iron Mountain’s best chance for claiming at least a share of the title may be dependent on Negaunee, who ended their seven-game losing street by defeating Westwood 36-29 on the road, but not before losing another late lead to Gwinn on Tuesday 53-52.  Gwinn, after ending a long losing streak to the Miners, followed it up with an eight point loss in Norway against Jordan Kramer & the Knights.  This week is going to be an exciting end to the season as we could have co-champions in the MPC for the second year in a row!

For the boys, all signs are pointing towards Negaunee Memorial Gymnasium as the place to be on March 3rd.  The Iron Mountain Mountaineers & the Negaunee Miners are rolling and currently sit tied atop the MPC in the loss column (I.M. has two wins in hand over the Miners).  Iron Mountain only had their one game last week, and handled Kingsford by ten on the road.  Meanwhile the Miners took care of a couple GNC opponents themselves, picking up two double digit wins; one on the road against the Braves, and a convincing performance against the Marquette Redmen.  The Ishpeming Hematites remain a head scratcher.  After blowing a late lead against Marquette in Marquette, they turned around and only beat the Emeralds by 10 points.  This is a team that put up 48 points against the Mountaineers, but can only manage 49 against the Emeralds?  It really doesn’t add up.  Speaking of the Emeralds, they did pick up their third win on the season with a dominating performance in Engadine on Monday.  Speaking of head-scratchers, Gwinn has now lost four games in a row, including losses against the Knights & Patriots who combine for a 12-19 record this year.  I don’t know what team we saw take Iron Mountain to the brink, and start 7-2, but they need to figure it out before the Miners come knocking on March 11th in Ishpeming.

Well I’ve bored you enough, if you’ve even stuck around this far.  Let’s see what’s on the slate for this week in MPC Basketball!

Revenge is on their mind in Iron Mountain as the boys team looks to knock off the only team to beat them this year: The Ishpeming Hematites.

MONDAY 2/23

Girl’s Basketball

• No Games

Boy’s Basketball

• Ishpeming Hematites @ Iron Mountain Mountaineers  IM: 45  ISH: 42 

TUESDAY 2/24

Girl’s Basketball

• Westwood Patriots @ Norway Knights  NOR: 38  WW: 30
• Ishpeming Hematites @ Manistique Emeralds  ISH: 71  MAN: 28
• Iron Mountain Mountaineers @ Gwinn ModelTowners  GWN: 62  IM: 47
• Marquette Redettes @ Negaunee Miners  MARQ: 56  NEG: 27

Boy’s Basketball

• Gladstone Braves @ Westwood Patriots  WW: 60  GLAD: 54
• Norway Knights @ Stephenson Eagles  STE: 63  NOR: 62
• Gwinn ModelTowners @ Escanaba Eskymos  GWN: 48  ESKY: 42

WEDNESDAY 2/25

Girl’s Basketball

• No Games

Boy’s Basketball

• Westwood Patriots @ Negaunee Miners NEG: 64  WW: 38
  
• Escanaba Eskymos @ Manistique Emeralds  ESKY: 70  MAN: 51

Negaunee swept the Hematites in the regular season in 2013-2014… the Hematites are looking to return the favor this Thursday as they welcome in the Miners.

THURSDAY 2/26

Girl’s Basketball

• Negaunee Miners @ Ishpeming Hematites  ISH: 49  NEG: 47
  
• Big Bay de Noc Black Bears @ Manistique Emeralds  MAN: 53  BBdN: 31
• Gladstone Braves @ Iron Mountain Mountaineers  GLAD: 45  IM: 28

Boy’s Basketball

• No Games

FRIDAY 2/27

Girl’s Basketball

• Westwood Patriots @ Gwinn ModelTowners  GWN: 54  WW: 39
  

Boy’s Basketball

• Negaunee Miners @ Norway Knights  NEG: 56  NOR: 22
• Manistique Emeralds @ Munising Mustangs  MUN: 80  MAN: 33
• Iron Mountain Mountaineers @ Menominee Maroons  IM: 46  MEN: 27
• Gwinn ModelTowners @ Superior Central Cougars  GWN: 67  SC: 48
• Houghton Gremlins @ Westwood Patriots  WW: 60  HOU: 51

Well there you go.  Once the final buzzer sounds in Gwinn on Friday night, that will be the end of the MPC schedule for the girls.  Again girls… enjoy it.

Can the ModelTowner boys team turn around their recent string of bad games? They’ll need to if they want to go into the districts with any sort of momentum.

MPC STANDINGS (Updated 2/26)

Girls Basketball

1. Ishpeming Hematites (17-3; 11-1)   (CLINCHED MPC REGULAR SEASON TITLE)
2. Iron Mountain Mountaineers (11-9; 9-3)
3. Gwinn ModelTowners (13-7; 7-5)
4. Norway Knights (12-7; 6-6)
5. Negaunee Miners (8-12; 6-6)
6. Westwood Patriots (4-19; 3-9)
7. Manistique Emeralds (2-18 0-12)

Boys Basketball

1. Iron Mountain Mountaineers (18-1; 10-1)
2. Negaunee Miners (15-3; 9-1)
3. Ishpeming Hematites (11-7; 6-5)
4. Westwood Patriots (9-9; 5-6)
5. Gwinn ModelTowners (9-9; 5-6)
6. Norway Knights (5-13; 2-8)
7. Manistique Emeralds (3-16; 1-10)

Good luck to all teams this week!

-Carl Leander Johnson

email:  carl@sunny.fm

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