Iron Mountain Dream Season Continues
March 14, 2019
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
EAST LANSING – “Living this dream.”
Iron Mountain coach Bucky Johnson put special emphasis on those words Thursday afternoon.
He may have been pointing out the present tense of “living” after his Mountaineers ended the season for 2018 Class C champion Detroit Edison. Or maybe the “dream” as his team earned a shot to play for its first MHSAA boys basketball championship since winning the Upper Peninsula-only bracket in 1939.
Iron Mountain faced a tall task in the day’s first Division 3 Semifinal, even for a team that hasn’t tasted defeat this season. But the Mountaineers held off Edison 60-57 in their first Semifinals appearance since 1994.
“There’s not a lot of U.P. teams that get to come down here and experience this,” Iron Mountain junior guard Foster Wonders said. “To come down here and win too is something special. We take pride in that. It’s been unbelievable.”
Iron Mountain (27-0) will face also-unbeaten Pewamo-Westphalia in Saturday’s 4:30 p.m. championship game.
The Mountaineers have enjoyed quite a visit to East Lansing. On Wednesday, they spent an hour with 1973 graduate Tom Izzo, then watched his Michigan State team practice Thursday morning.
And all of that set up the Semifinal they weren’t necessarily expected to win – despite the perfect record they brought downstate. Edison (18-9) had more losses than all but one team making the trip to Breslin this weekend, but all seven to in-state opponents had come against Division 1 and 2 teams, and the Pioneers had just toppled top-ranked Flint Beecher in their Quarterfinal.
Edison then led most of the first quarter, carrying a seven-point advantage into the second.
“In the U.P. you don’t really see any athletes like that, with the length and athleticism they had,” Iron Mountain junior guard Marcus Johnson said.
But he and his teammates had a few surprises for Edison as well.
First was a game plan to attack the paint, which resulted in two first-quarter fouls for Pioneers’ 6-foot-6 junior Bryce George. He ended up limited to only 15 minutes for the game, with eight points and six rebounds that could’ve been a lot more with more time on the floor. He had four points and four rebounds before picking up that second foul 5:11 into the game.
Next, Iron Mountain played only six players, and four all 32 minutes. Edison had 12 players with at least four minutes of action, but couldn’t wear the Mountaineers down.
Not surprising was how Iron Mountain won. Johnson was averaging 23.3 points per game entering this week, and sophomore guard Foster Wonders was averaging 23.9. Wonders had 28 on Thursday, making nearly half his shots from the floor and 9-of-10 free-throw tries. Johnson had 23 points, with five 3-pointers and perfection on six free-throw attempts.
“One thing we knew about this team is they were winners. If a team has gone all season not losing a basketball, game, you have to respect them to the utmost,” Edison coach Brandon Neely said. “These guys play six guys, and one guy played four minutes. The thing about this team is they play so well as a team because they know where guys are. Teams like that are a great example to learn from.
“They played like champions.”
Sophomore guard Ralph Johnson came off the bench to lead Edison with 14 points, and senior forward Brian Taylor was held to 11 points and seven rebounds. Taylor, the team’s leading scorer coming into this week, was also its lone senior this season.
Edison shot a game-high 47 percent from the floor during the fourth quarter and got within 45-44 with 3:26 to play. But Iron Mountain’s “makers” – as Bucky Johnson called them, spinning off the “shooters shoot” phrase – had connected on 64 percent of their shots during the third quarter and made 50 percent during the fourth, including both shots from the floor and 10 straight free throws after Edison pulled within a point.
“Coach Izzo told us some people like it, some people love it and some people live it,” Marcus Johnson said. “And we want to live it. It’s an awesome feeling to get to the championship, and we want to get it home.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Iron Mountain celebrates Thursday its first Semifinal win since 1939. (Middle) Jake Dumais (32) battles Edison’s Brian Taylor for a loose ball.
Schoolcraft Completes Breslin Return This Time as D3's Best
By
Dean Holzwarth
Special for MHSAA.com
March 26, 2022
EAST LANSING – Last season, the Schoolcraft boys basketball team came close to reaching its ultimate goal.
A year later, the Eagles were motivated to take that next step and complete what they started.
Schoolcraft defeated overall top seed Menominee 59-49 on Saturday in the Division 3 Final at Breslin Center.
The Eagles (25-2) won the program’s first Finals title since claiming Class C in 2011.
Schoolcraft advanced to the Semifinals last year and lost to Iron Mountain in overtime.
“Last year it was really cool for us to get here, but we wanted more,” said senior Ty Rykse, who helped lead Schoolcraft with 15 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
“We came into practice wanting more, and we didn't just expect to show up here and be satisfied with a great season. We wanted to win it.”
Rykse’s younger brother, sophomore Shane Rykse, also contributed sizably with 15 points as the Eagles held off a late run by the Maroons.
“We had a chip on our shoulder since Day 1, and especially against Flint Beecher (in Thursday’s Semifinal win),” Shane Rykse said. “We were counted out from the start, but we found a way to get it done.”
Ty Rykse had nine of the team’s first 15 points.
The Eagles got off to a hot start and shot a torrid 72 percent (8-of-11) from the field in the first quarter en route to a double-digit advantage (20-10).
The Maroons trimmed the deficit to 24-18 in the second quarter. However, Schoolcraft’s Eli DeVisser scored on a nifty pass from Ty Rykse during the final 30 seconds to push the lead back to 31-20 at the half.
Shane Rykse helped extend the lead late in the third quarter. A driving scoop lay-up with the left hand and an ensuing 3-pointer gave the Eagles their biggest lead of the game at 46-28.
“They are a great tandem,” Schoolcraft coach Randy Small said of the Rykse brothers. “Ty’s leadership is phenomenal, and it was very important for him to treat his brother like a teammate.”
Eli DeVisser also finished in double figures with 14 points, while senior Tyler DeGroote had a game-high 12 rebounds and seven points.
The Eagles outrebounded the Maroons 40-25 and shot 47 percent for the game, including 50 percent (6-of-12) from behind the 3-point line.
“I thought our preparation was pretty good, and I think overall we did a pretty decent job,” Small said. “We rebounded the ball better in the second half and we continued to shoot the ball well, so I was proud of that. We hit our open shots for the most part, and it's special to get here two years in a row."
The Maroons got to within 53-45 with less than two minutes remaining, but couldn't get any closer.
“I thought we fought our hearts out, and we played hard until the end,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “Probably a little bit too much size and physicality at different parts of the game, and we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well tonight. We picked a poor time to have an off night, especially from the free throw line.”
Menominee (23-4), in search of its first Finals championship since 1967 in Class B, will graduate five senior starters who helped resurrect the program from a point where the varsity went 4-17 just three years ago.
“What these guys have done has changed the program,” Larson said. “They have made basketball relevant again, and you couldn’t get these seniors out of the gym. They love basketball, they love each other and they would do anything for this program.”
Seniors Brady Schultz and Aidan Bellisle led Menominee with 19 and 14 points, respectively.
PHOTOS (Top) Schoolcraft’s Tyler DeGroote (24) and his teammates celebrate at the final buzzer of their Division 3 championship win Saturday. (Middle) Shane Rykse (10) cuts between a pair of Menominee defenders. (Below) Schoolcraft’s Ty Rykse (33) gets up court as Menominee’s Brady Schultz (24) follows. (Click for more from Hockey Weekly Action Photos.)