The Negaunee High School girls basketball team illustrates their team’s gesture after defeating Ludington in the championship game of the Irontown Holiday Bash on Saturday afternoon at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium in Negaunee. (Photo courtesy Mike O’Donnell)

NEGAUNEE — Even though they only count as nonleague games, Negaunee still has a pretty impressive holiday weekend at its own Irontown Holiday Bash held at Lakeview Memorial Gymnasium.

The Miners won the title in this four-team event, defeating up-and-coming Upper Peninsula squad Ewen-Trout Creek 47-30 on Friday afternoon before dispatching Lower Peninsula powerhouse Ludington 50-41 on Saturday afternoon.

In the tourney’s other games, Ludington edged Kingsford 40-37 in Friday’s other semifinal as Alyvia Kowalski had 14 points for the Flivvers, while in the consolation game on Saturday, E-TC blitzed Kingsford 55-26 as Emma Besonen had 14 points for the victorious Panthers.

The Miners’ Aubrey Johnson was named tournament most valuable player, while named to the all-tournament team were teammate Gretel Johnson, E-TC’s Besonen, Kingsford’s Kowalski and Ludington’s Eliana Jerusal and Peyton Welch.

“Overall, we played two quality teams, Ewen and Ludington in two days, and had to dig deep in both games,” Negaunee head coach Mike O’Donnell said in emails detailing both days. “We hope that will give us some good momentum as we come out of Christmas break.”

The event was sponsored by Zero Star Basketball and AdvantEdge Sports Training.

The Miners get a little bit of holiday time off before resuming play at home against Iron Mountain at 7:15 p.m. Friday.

Here are details on each of the Negaunee’s games:

———————

Negaunee 47, Ewen-Trout Creek 30

On Friday, the Miners broke open a close game in the second half that they led just 21-20 at halftime.

Negaunee outscored their guests 12-5 in the third quarter to go ahead 34-26 entering the fourth, then reeled off a 13-4 streak in the final period.

“Ewen is a very good team and will make some noise in (MHSAA) Division 4,” O’Donnell said. “We had to earn everything. Ewen is well coached, skilled and plays very hard.

“We were able to gain some separation in the third quarter. Alena Park drained a big three(-pointer) for us in that quarter and we were able to pull away a bit.”

Aubrey Johnson led NHS with 12 points, while Gretel Johnson added 10 as Gretel made two triples and Aubrey one.

Park also had seven points, including her own 3.

Besonen, however, led all scorers with 16 points, hitting four triples, two of them in the opening quarter. Teammates Bree Besonen and Irelynd McGeshick added six points apiece.

———————

Negaunee 50, Ludington 41

On Saturday, Aubrey Johnson cemented her case for tourney MVP by scoring 20 points and making a pair of 3s as she sank multiple baskets every quarter.

“We’ve seen Ludington in two of the past three (MHSAA) regional finals in Division 2 and have had great battles with them,” O’Donnell said. “We wanted to try and get them up for our holiday tournament. They were gracious enough to oblige, and it resulted in one heck of a championship game to end our Holiday Bash.

“This was a back-and-forth battle for 32 minutes. We had to fight some injuries and foul trouble. Aubrey Johnson got knocked out for a big stretch in the second half with a ‘double’ bloody nose and we were able to weather that stretch and actually increase our lead by a small margin. That was the main key in the game.

“Another big momentum swing came at the end of the third quarter when we were down two points. Lili Saunders nailed a 30-footer at the buzzer to give us a one-point lead going into the fourth; I felt that was huge.”

Gretel Johnson added 13 points to the winning cause as she nailed a trio of triples, all in the second half, while Clare O’Donnell produced eight points.

Welch led all scorers with 22 points, making a pair of 3s and 8 of 8 free throws, while Jerusal had 12 points.

The game was within a single score at the end of each of the first three quarters. Negaunee led 11-9 after one and 22-19 at halftime before the Orioles edged back to within 36-35 by the end of the third period.

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