Houghton’s Maryellen Trewhella, right, defends against Calumet’s Elli Djerf on Monday in Calumet. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

CALUMET — While the Houghton Gremlins rallied within two points of the Calumet Copper Kings in the final minutes of Monday night’s basketball contest, they got no further and fell to a 56-49 loss.

According to Gremlins head coach Julie Filpus, the outcome should have been better.

“We put ourselves into a deep hole early on in the game, and it  was hard to dig ourselves out,” she said.

In the opening quarter, a feisty Copper King defense forced a lot of turnovers for the Gremlins. Houghton appeared anxious and unsure about what to do with the ball. On the other hand, Calumet did know, and they jumped out to a 16-7 lead after the first eight minutes.

They moved that to a 30-18 lead at halftime.

“We started out well,” said Calumet head coach Matt Laho. “We got Houghton to play fast and that forced a ton of turnovers early on, and we were able to turn  those into points on offense.”

The third quarter was Houghton’s best as they outscored Calumet 19-12. They moved their deficit to five by the end of the third. Much of the catch up came from the hot hand of Houghton’s Maryellen Trewhella. She led the scoring with 18 points. She was followed by Stella Wickstrom’s nine points.

“I can’t say enough about those two,” Filpus said. “Maryellen is very much a leader on both ends of the court. Stella was our monster rebounder, but they cannot do it all.”

While a five-point lead for the Copper Kings was trimmed to two points midway through the fourth, Coach Laho was not worried.

“We were forcing them to make bad decisions and make bad passes, but  we weren’t converting that into offensive points,” he said. “We settled down and were able to stay the course.”

Elli Djerf led the scoring for the Copper Kings with 19 points. Marybeth Halonen followed with 10.

“We need to correct some things defensively,” Filpus said. “But overall, I was very proud of the team’s effort tonight.”

Houghton 7 11 19 12 — 49

Calumet 16 14 12 14 — 56