ONTONAGON — The Ontonagon Gladiators boys basketball team was able to slow down the Bessemer Speedboys on Thursday and earn 54-47 win at home, but it wasn’t easy.

Bessemer came out strong in the first and took a 13-10 lead. Ontonagon bounced back to tie it at half at 24.

Then came the third where the Gladiators poured it on and outscored the Speedboys 21-12.

“We really came alive the third quarter and shot well from outside,” said Ontonagon coach Brittany Turin-Jilbert.

They kept their push going into the fourth and improved their record to 7-8 with the seven-point win.

“We did a good job moving on defense and having help defense when needed,” she said. “We struggled a little with the press, but started to break better in the second half.”

Carson Uotila led the scoring for the Gladiators with 15 points. Adam Graff sunk 11. For Bessemer, Daniel Lis had 16 points.

Up next

Ontonagon heads to Ironwood Tuesday.

Scoring

BHS 13 11 12 11 – 47

ONT 10 14 21 9 – 54

BHS – Trudgeon 8, Harjuu 9, Hollenbeck 6, Lis 16, Carlson 8.

ONT – Graff 11, Kolpack 6, Peska 8, Uotila 15, Majunn 5, Kaarto 2, Nelson 7.