Ishpeming High School's Hart Holmgren, center, dribbles the ball to the basket against the defense of Iron Mountain's Jaden Vicenzi, right, on Friday night, Feb. 3, 2017, at Ishpeming High School. (Journal photo by Jess Makela)

MARQUETTE — In a short period of time, Ishpeming 6-foot-5 senior guard Hart Holmgren has gone from being a solid basketball player to one of the best in the Upper Peninsula.

He’s built up a reputation for both slick skills and thunderous dunks and became a fan favorite.

In addition to that, Holmgren became the Hematites’ all-time leading boys scorer with 1,177 points and also broke the single-season record this year with 509 points.

The Northern Michigan University commit also averaged 23.1 points per game, 6.2 rebounds and two blocks, so his stats definitely make people take notice.

“Yes, he’s a scorer at over 20 points per game, but the other things he does with the ball and what he does without the ball is get the rest of his teammates involved in the game,” Ishpeming coach Anthony Katona said. “He did a good job when he was seeing double and triple teams of getting the ball to the open man.”

Holmgren definitely got the U.P. Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association’s attention as members rewarded him with a spot on the U.P. Dream Team at their annual meeting on Wednesday. Holmgren almost added another big award, but he came up short to Iron Mountain’s Marcus Johnson for Class A-B-C Player of the Year.

Also joining Holmgren on the Dream Team are Johnson, Dollar Bay’s Devin Schmitz, Sault Ste. Marie’s Brandon Paul and Ewen-Trout Creek’s Jake Witt.

After a stellar career where he finished with 1,782 points and 1,310 rebounds, Witt was unanimously chosen as Class D Player of the Year. Witt also earned the first-ever Mr. U.P. Basketball award, one vote short of being a unanimous pick.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.