Marquette’s Wyatt Lakenen, front, drives in for a layup as Kingsford’s Jack Kriegl, partially hidden, tries to block his shot from behind on Thursday at Flivver Gym in Kingsford. The Sentinels secured the Great Northern Conference title with a 64-37 win. (Terry Raiche photo)

By SEAN CHASE

Iron Mountain Daily News

KINGSFORD — There were sure to be fireworks with the meeting of two of the top three teams in Divisions 1-3, according to the Upper Peninsula Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association.

And fans got just that on Thursday at Flivver Gym as No. 3 Kingsford welcomed No. 2 Marquette to town looking to claim a share of the Great Northern Conference title with a win.

However, the Flivvers’ offense struggled to convert opportunities into points against the Sentinels (19-3, 8-0) and Marquette secured the outright conference title with a 64-37 win.

MSHS came in with a one-game advantage over the Flivvers (17-4, 6-2) in the conference race after picking up a 71-69 win in Marquette on Jan. 4.

“It feels great, I’m so proud of the kids,” Sentinels head coach Rich Ledy said. “I think they were kind of hoping that Menominee would win on Monday, but I told them, after Kingsford beat Menominee, ‘Hey, we want to win it on the court, we don’t want to back into anything. Let’s go down there and show them we’re the best team in the conference.’ And I felt like we did.”

Although Kingsford looked strong in the opening two quarters, it couldn’t buy a basket down the stretch.

“At the end we were pretty upset, but looking at that first half, we did some pretty good things,” Flivvers head coach Dan Olkkonen said. “I thought we ran our offense well. I thought we had a lot of looks we really wanted, especially from the outside, we just did not shoot the ball very well. That has to be one of our worst shooting games of the year.

“For the ball not to go in and you start pressing more and start pressing early, and even when we got the ball back it seemed like it almost always bounced their way. You get a lot of things that go against you out there and we kept fighting. They have a really good team…. They’re not undefeated in the conference for no reason.”

Prior to the game, Kingsford honored its five seniors — Connor Quick, Cardel Morton, Eli Wallis, Cayden Cherubini and Jacob Markworth.

Sentinels junior Jacob MacPhee opened the scoring in the first quarter with a layup, sparking a 10-1 run by his team. Kingsford junior Morgan Sleik stopped the bleeding by burying two free throws and the Flivvers called a timeout to regroup.

MacPhee got the Sentinels back on track with a two-handed slam and they rolled to a 15-7 lead by the start of the second frame.

After scoring two points in the first, Flivvers junior guard Gavin Grondin found his stroke and connected on a 3-pointer at the start of the second to cut the lead to five.

Markworth added a layup and Morton pitched in five points down the stretch of the second. However, Marquette’s Parker Saunders beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer from the right corner as the Sentinels went into the locker room ahead 28-19.

Markworth recorded a rebound and putback layup early in the third, but Marquette came out of the locker room on a roll. Less than four minutes into the frame, the Sentinels’ lead was up to 20 points.

“Their bigs inside played well,” Olkkonen said. “Then we put in a full-court pressure, we really had to work on that and they got some easy buckets. The run just kept going. It seemed like we were working really hard and that deficit kept getting bigger and bigger.”

Grondin notched seven points in the final four minutes of the third, but as the buzzer sounded, the Marquette advantage remained at 20 points, 52-32.

A layup to start the final frame pushed Grondin’s total for the game to 17 points and gave Kingsford some life. However, the Flivvers couldn’t slow the visitors’ momentum as they breezed to the conference title.

Grondin’s 17 points led all scorers.

The Flivvers also received contributions from Markworth with seven points and Morton with five.

Marquette received contributions from Wyatt Lakenen with 16 points, Jaxon Jurmu with 11, MacPhee 10, Jack Quinnell eight, Kyler Sager seven and Saunders six.

Both teams now turn their attention to the MHSAA playoffs. Each has a bye in the opening round of their respective districts, Marquette in Division 1 and Kingsford in Division 2, and will play their first game Wednesday.

While Kingsford is tentatively listed as playing at the winner of Monday’s game between Gladstone and Houghton.

Marquette will host the winner of Monday’s encounter between Gaylord and Traverse City Central at 6 p.m. Wednesday. A win in that game puts the Sentinels in the district championship, which would also be in Marquette, at 6 p.m. Friday.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.