Jeffers’ David Jukkala goes up for a shot as Dollar Bay’s Ashtin Janke, left, and Jaden Janke defend during the first half Thursday, in Dollar Bay. Dollar Bay won 69-39. (Bryce Derouin/Daily Mining Gazette)

DOLLAR BAY — While Jesse Kentala ate dinner at Quincy’s Restaurant with his daughter Wednesday night, on two occasions, a stranger approached to let him know how eager they were to watch his team this season.

“Everywhere I go, all the time, it doesn’t matter where I am, people talk basketball,” Kentala said.

That kind of anxiousness had been building for 269 days since the Dollar Bay Blue Bolts lost by two points in the regional semifinals to the eventual three-time state champion North Central Jets. And on Thursday in Dollar Bay’s season debut against the Jeffers Jets, the Blue Bolts showed why all the hype was warranted in a 69-39 Copper Mountain Conference win in Dollar Bay.

Seniors Devin Schmitz and Jaden Janke looked even more explosive and stronger from their All-U.P. seasons last year, with Schmitz finishing with 25 points and seven rebounds, while Janke added 20 points and nine boards.

“As a team, we were all excited for this game,” Schmitz said. “We’ve been waiting for it the whole summer. After that North Central game, we knew we’d come back this year and do something special.”

There were plenty of those special moments. Such as Schmitz blowing past his defender consistently to score on 9 of 13 shot attempts (69 percent), and Janke showcasing his improved post game and newfound strength around the basket. Then, in the second half, senior Brandon Thompson swished two 3s when Jeffers tried to play a 2-3 zone in an attempt to slow down the Blue Bolts, who ended up converting 48 percent of their shots (27 of 56).

“We tried man right away, then Schmitz started doing his thing. You either foul him or give him a layup,” Jeffers coach Trent Keteri said. “He’s the shiftiest guard probably in the U.P.

“Then we threw in the 2-3, but he started to break us down and started to hit the shooters.”

But similar to any season opener, there were the typical early-season miscues that even Dollar Bay (1-0, 1-0) was plagued by. Three of the team’s 12 turnovers were sloppy passes due to miscommunication, and Dollar Bay shot just 5 of 16 from 3-point range.

The absence of senior Jacob Iacono, who has to sit the first two games of the season due to a violation of school rules, was apparent to everyone in the packed gym. Iacono led the Blue Bolts last season with 8.7 rebounds per game, but without him, Dollar Bay was killed on the glass by Jeffers, outrebounded 46-34 with 21 of the Jets’ rebounds coming on the offensive end.

“Good Lord. We will address that,” Kentala said. “We rely on Jacob to do a lot of that dirty work. Our guys just didn’t do a good enough job. They weren’t sealing at times, it was just ugly. Credit Jeffers, they’re a scrappy team and a tough bunch of kids.”

Despite being underdogs Jeffers continued its hot shooting from the overtime loss to Bessemer when the Jets converted 12 3s. Junior Jerry Wakeham and senior Justin Heinonen each swished 3s within the first minute to give the Jets a 6-0 lead. But Jeffers (0-2, 0-2) would go just 3 of 26 from 3 the rest of the game and finished 11 of 55 overall (20 percent). The Jets also turned it over 22 times against Dollar Bay’s man-to-man press that trapped at every opportunity.

“All game I was telling them we needed to get inside to (David) Jukkala, or run screen-and-rolls with Jukkala,” Keteri said. “I wanted our bigs to beat them because that’s the history of beating Dollar Bay — getting your big guys inside — and we couldn’t do it.”

Janke dominated the post to start the game, scoring 12 of his 20 points in the first quarter on 5 of 7 shot attempts as the Blue Bolts outscored Jeffers 17-6 to close the quarter.

In the second quarter, when Janke picked up his third foul, it was Schmitz attacking the basket and converting 4 of 5 shots from the field while making 6 of 7 free throw attempts for a 15-point quarter, giving him 19 before Dollar Bay took a 37-23 lead into halftime.

Thompson then led the Blue Bolts with all eight of his points in the third quarter.

“I’m just going to say it right now: I think Devin is Dream Team all day,” Kentala said of Schmitz being one of the five best players in the U.P. “Jaden was unstoppable early, and then Brandon stepped up when we needed him to. It was nice to see three seniors step up and take control at different parts of the game.”

For Jeffers, sophomore Austin Kinnunen and senior Carson Turner led the way with nine points, each. Turner and Jukkala each secured a team-high 11 rebounds.

Next, Dollar Bay heads to Bessemer on Monday; Jeffers travels to Wakefield-Marenisco on the same day.

– – –

Jeffers 12 11 10 6 — 39

Dollar Bay 17 20 18 19 — 69

Jeffers — Kinnunen 9, Wakeham 8, Heinonen 3, Hill 5, Turner 9, Jukkala 5. F: 14; Fouled out: None; Free throws: 12-22; 3-point field goals: Wakeham 2, Kinnunen, Heinonen, Turner.

Dollar Bay — LeClaire 8, Thompson 8, Schmitz 25, J. Janke 20, A. Janke 7, Nelson 1. F: 14; Fouled out: None; Free throws: 10-14; 3-point field goals: Thompson 2, LeClaire, A. Janke, Schmitz.