Westwood senior Reid Frustaglio, left, tries to corral the ball on a drive to the hoop during an MHSAA Division 3 boys basketball tournament state semifinal game played against the Arts & Technology Academy of Pontiac on Thursday at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. (Keith Dunlap photo)

EAST LANSING — It probably won’t take long for the players on the Westwood High School boys basketball team to realize just what a special ride it took the west Ishpeming community on this year, including a trip across the Mackinac Bridge downstate to the MHSAA Division 3 semifinals in East Lansing on Thursday.

But in the here and now, the past couple of weeks were harder for them to soak in after seeing their bid for a first-ever state finals appearance fall short in a 76-40 loss to Arts & Technology Academy of Pontiac at the Breslin Center on the campus of Michigan State University.

Simply put, Arts & Tech just had too much skill, speed and athleticism for the Patriots to handle.

“We ultimately fell short (Thursday), but it doesn’t change anything we did all year,” fifth-year WHS head coach Luke Gray said. “We set the standard. Graduated seven seniors from last year. These kids embraced it the right way. We had a great summer and I will always cherish the way this team leads by example not only within this program, but in the community with how they treat others.”

Junior Ethan Marta scored 15 points and senior Tristan Miller added 13 to lead the way for Westwood (22-6), which made its first semifinal appearance since 2003.

“It hurts to lose, but we will build each other up and I know we are a better basketball team than what we performed (Thursday),” Miller said. “It is what it is.”

Keeping possession of the ball was a big problem for the Patriots, as Arts & Tech’s relentless pressure defense forced 21 turnovers, many of which led to uncontested layups.

The Lions shot a simmering 70.5% from the field — 31 of 44 — making 29 of 34 shots from 2-point range.

Arts & Tech Academy head coach Orlando Lovejoy said he didn’t have any time to specifically prepare for the Patriots. It was all about focusing on his team and what it could do.

“We don’t watch film on nobody,” Lovejoy said. “Why would we even watch film on somebody when we don’t even know how they are going to play us? There’s no need to watch film.

“The most important thing is to play the way we are going to play and control what we can control, and that’s how we play defense. That’s the main thing we can stop anybody with — our defense.”

Arts & Tech also held a 24-17 rebounding advantage and held Westwood to 3-of-15 shooting from 3-point range.

Things got away from the Patriots early on, as Arts & Tech jumped out to an 8-0 lead and forced Gray to call two timeouts before the game was even four minutes old.

The Patriots seemed to settle in during the initial minutes of the second quarter, cutting their deficit to 20-14 with 5:05 to go before intermission after a basket by Tristan Miller.

The Lions then turned up their defensive pressure and got easy breakaway layups as a result, ending the second quarter on a 16-1 run to grab a 36-15 lead over the Patriots at halftime.

The Lions forced 11 first-half turnovers by Westwood.

The Patriots played Arts & Tech more evenly in the third quarter, but still trailed 56-33 going into the fourth quarter as the deficit was just too much to overcome.

One of three Upper Peninsula teams to make it to the semifinals, the Patriots got to the state’s final four for the first time since 2003.

They’ll just have to wait another year for a

chance to get to the championship game.

Keith Dunlap of Lake Orion also writes for the Michigan High School Athletic Association and several media and social media websites, and is a past sports writer for the Oakland Press. He has written stories for The Mining Journal the past two high school basketball postseasons, when the Ishpeming High School girls basketball team won the MHSAA Division 4 championship in 2024 and when the Munising High School boys basketball team won their Division 4 title in 2023.