L’ANSE — The L’Anse High School Gym was hopping on Thursday as Keweenaw Bay rivals — the L’Anse Purple Hornets and Baraga Vikings boys and girls basketball teams battled it out on the court. The Vikings won both games.

The girls played first and notched a 64-48 win and the Baraga boys finished the night with a 55-50 victory.

Baraga’s girls’ coach Tyler Larson summed up his team’s 13th win (13-3) on the season as a complete-game victory.

“We executed well,” he said. “We came out and had high energy on both the offensive and defensive ends, and we hit our shots.”

He added that this is typical rivalry game that never seems to disappoint. Thursday’s matchup fit the mold as both teams came out swinging and ended the first quarter with a 14-14 knot.

The Vikings proved their prowess in the second with eight unanswered points in the first 90 seconds of the quarter. They poured on another 12 points and make it a 34-24 Baraga lead at halftime.

The Purple Hornets (7-7) knew that they had their work cut out in the second half, and their coach Chad Rice told them so.

“I said to them that we have to run our offense better,” he said. “We had to be quicker, but it didn’t work.”

Baraga pushed the lead to more than 15 points by the end of the third.

“Some of this is mental,” Rice said. “The girls miss a shot and then get downn and stop communicating.”

The Purple Hornets had two players in double figures. Brooklyn Dompier and Ellie Kromer both had 10 points.

With a substantial lead, Larson was able to put in a number of bench players as the game wound down, and he was quite pleased with what he saw.

“Everybody who got in did well,” he said. “It is a testament to their hard work at practice. We are a team, and everybody has a role.”

Leading the Vikings in scoring was Corina Jahfetson with 20. Kylie Michaelson had 16, and Kinsei Jahfetson sunk 10.

Up next

The Baraga girls will welcome the Ewen Trout-Creek Panthers on Wednesday. The Purple Hornets will take on the Ontonagon Gladiators at home on Monday.

Scoring

BHS 14 20 15 15 – 64

LHS 14 11 7 6 – 38

BHS – Hendrickson 9, Smith 3, Larson 2, Michaelson 16, C. Jahfetson 20, Tembruell 4, K. Jahfetson 10.

LHS – Londo 7, Rice 9, Dompier 10, Kromer 10, Peterson 2.

Vikings boys hold off Hornets late

In the second game of the night, the Baraga boys continued that fighting Vikings spirit with a 55-50 win over the Purple Hornets (3-10). It was the second time these two rivals had played this season. Like the first one in December, the boys from Baraga (4-9) dominated Thursday’s matchup.

“We made our shots, but even more importantly, we rebounded really well,” said Vikings coach Jon Boever. “We were getting second and third chances under the hoop and holding them to just one-shot possessions.”

Nick Sobay was a force to be reckoned with off the glass as brought in rebounds and led the scoring for the Vikings with 18. Carter Schjoth followed with 11.

“Carter hit some big threes for us, and I thought we had a good mix of inside points and outside shots,” said Boever.

Baraga led 30-22 at half. Both teams scored just six in the third and it was a 36-28 Vikings’ lead headed into the last eight minutes.

While the fourth quarter would be L’Anse’s best in terms of points with 22, they were not able to stop the Vikings on offense – much to the frustration of their coach Steven Denomie.

“We are not able to put together a complete game,” he said. “That has been a struggle for us. We have moments of strong play, but that is followed but a streak of bad play. We have got to be better.”

Shawn Gibbons scored 26 points for the Purple Hornets. He was follow by Dean Magaraggia who sunk 15.

Up next

The Baraga boys will welcome Republic-Michigamme to their gym on Tuesday. L’Anse will travel to Calumet to face the Copper Kings on Tuesday.

Scoring

BHS 17 13 6 19 – 55

LHS 10 12 6 22 – 50

BHS – Nieskes 9, Denomie 9, Schjoth 11, Sobay 18, Parrish 3, Sterbenz 5.

LHS – Foucault 2, Sweeney 2, Magaraggia 15, Kissel 5, Gibbons 26.