Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette Calumet’s Celia Kiilunen attempts a layup after driving around Jeffers’ Brenna Hill during a game Monday at the Calumet Gym.

CALUMET — Matt Laho recorded his first victory as head coach of the Copper Kings girls basketball team. His team defeated the Jeffers Jets, 66-26, at the Calumet Gym.

“I thought the girls executed well,” said Laho.

The Copper Kings scored first and never looked back. They came out energetic and at times employed a full-court press, which kept the Jets off their game.

“We lost this one from the start,” said Jeffers coach Joe Romano. “My girls didn’t come to play. We had no game plan.”

After a quarter of play, Calumet led 22-6.

In second quarter, both teams showed signs of being rusty, given that Monday was the first game for both teams. There were a lot of errant passes and missed shots. Romano was constantly subbing girls in and out, trying to find the right lineup to counter what Laho’s team was doing.

“I want them all to get game time and the experience of quick work and then rest,” Romano said.

Calumet was by far the dominant team as they were quick to turn the ball around from defense to offense with quite a few girls going in for easy layups.

At half it was 27-12 in favor of the hosts.

Things slowed down somewhat in the second half, but poor passing and bad shooting was still the norm. Both teams had too many runs down the court only to find the ball thrown out of bounds by a crazy throw.

“We are going to work on getting back to basics,” said Romano.

Laho echoed a similar sentiment

We have got to work on being smarter with basketball,” he said.

The Copper Kings play West Iron County on Thursday.

Jeffers 6 6 4 10 – 26

Calumet 22 5 17 7 – 66

JEF: B. Heinonen 2, Hill 2, Asiala 4, Johnson 5. Nordstrom 6, L. Heinonen 2. Lorenzette 5; Fouls: 6; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Johnson 1

CAL: Loukus 5, Anderson 5, Sturos 1, Kariniemi 2, Kiilunen 14, Larson 7, Djerf 13, Halonen 19; Fouls: 17; Fouled out: none; 3-point field goals: Halonen 3, Anderson 1, Larson 1