The girls’ game began the evening, and it was all Baraga (7-0) from the start. Junior standout Cori Jahfetson opened the game for Baraga with a three-pointer and then a jumper. She would go on to score 17 points on the night which included three triples.

Right along with her, scoring 17 points, was senior Reide Osterman.

The Vikings shutout the Nimrods 20-0 after the first. Watersmeet’s best eight minutes were the second quarter. They sunk seven points to make it a 32-7 tilt at halftime.

While the writing was on the wall for the Nimrods as they headed to the locker room, their coach Brent Besonen was pleased with the girls’ second half effort.

Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette Baraga’s Jayden Denomie brings the ball up court during a game against Watersmeet Monday at the Baraga Gym.

“Baraga is solid, and I knew what we were coming into,” he said. “I told them at halftime to not give up and not quit, and that’s what happened. They didn’t. We have a number of girls out there who haven’t played a whole lot, but they were still giving it their all.”

The third and fourth quarters were much the same as the first two. Baraga poured in an impressive 28 points in the third, and the big lead allowed Vikings’ head coach Tyler Larson to put in some of his younger bench players.

“After a two-week break, it was nice to come back and see some things that we have been working on,” he said. “We have a pretty good bench. We can sub players in and keep fresh legs out there.

“I always tell my players that this game in one part mental and another part physical. When you’re sitting out, that part is mental as you are watching the girl ahead of you and see who she is guarding. The girls are doing that, and that was great to see. They are applying some of the things we’ve been working on in practice.”

Scoring

Watersmeet 0 7 5 6 — 18

Baraga 20 12 28 0 — 60

Nimrods control boys’ tilt

In the boys’ game, Watersmeet was the dominating force as they led most of the game en route to the win.

Tyson Klingman opened the game with a shot inside the key for the Nimrods.

He and his teammates then turned right around and applied a tough defense that gave the Vikings fits. The man-to-man press was led by junior William Snow and senior Donovan McGeshick, who caused several turnovers and quite a few buckets on their end.

“We really struggled tonight in taking care of the ball,” said Vikings’ head coach Jon Boever. “We lack consistent play as a team. We struggle to make in-game adjustments. I tell them not to play as robots going up and down the court.”

He added that his team’s offensive rebounding was not there.

“We were one and done,” said Boever. “We were not boxing out and jumping in there for rebounds. That was our downfall.”

The Nimrods had three players in double figures. Brandon Romenesko led the charge with 20 points. Snow followed with 19, and Klingman had 13.

Interestingly, Monday’s contest was Snow’s first game of the season as he missed every game to this point with a stress fracture.

“He did a nice job tonight on both ends of the court,” said his coach, George Peterson III. “Tyson was also good inside. When he gets the ball, he puts it up.”

After Monday night’s victory, Peterson added that he is excited about the rest of the season.

“We have a couple of players out due to eligibility issues, and if we can get them back by the end of January, we could be a pretty good team. Until then, I was happy with the way we’ve been playing.”

Scoring

Watersmeet 15 16 14 23 — 68

Baraga 9 8 16 9 — 42