DEC 18, 2023 SEAN CHASE Daily News Sports Editor NORWAY — As the crowd piled into the gym at Norway High School on Friday, it seemed everyone knew Iron Mountain junior Oskar Kangas was on the cusp of history. It took until the fourth quarter, but those in attendance watched as Kangas rose up from the left corner and drilled a 3-point shot to join the Mountaineers 1,000 point club. “I started out kind of slow, I was getting kind of worried,” Kangas said. “But in the end, I knew as long as we won then I would be happy. I shot that corner three and I saw it kind of rattle a little bit. I was like, this might be my last opportunity, so I was praying, hoping it goes in. I saw it fall and it was a big sigh of relief. “I’m just thankful for the team, without them none of this would have been possible.” For Iron Mountain coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson, given the circumstances, it couldn’t have gone better. “When you coach kids that live it, and Oskar certainly lives it, it’s just a milestone,” Johnson said. “Down in Norway, a rivalry, it couldn’t really have played out much better. He had to work hard for it. So, I’m sure Norway knew that and they didn’t want to let it happen. Oskar kind of made it happen. … He joins a pretty prestigious group.” In the end, Iron Mountain defeated the Norway boys varsity basketball team 58-42 on the road. “It was a tough game,” Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said. “Norway came ready to play. We had a bad stretch in the first half and give Norway credit, they’ve got some athletes over there. They were getting to the loose balls and out scrapping us a little bit. “But we held them to 17 points, which is good. Still, I think we could have done a little better offensively.” For Norway, the game plan was all about stopping Oskar Kangas. “We wanted to body him, early and often,” Knights coach Jeff Gallino said. “I thought Cole Baij did a fantastic job on him. Unfortunately, in the later quarters, I think we ran out of gas.” Kangas opened the game with a steal and two hand jam, however those were the only points he would score in the first two quarters. After falling behind by 12 points in the first quarter, the Knights began to fight back. Alex Ortman and Mason Trudeau connected on layups. Then Ian Popp buried a 3-pointer and the energy in Norway was palpable. Trudeau added a layup off an assist from Cole Baij and Norway ended the first half down 18-13. The Knights scored four points in the second quarter and the Mountaineers extended their lead to eight points. “In the second half, I thought the kids really answered the bell,” Johnson said. “Oskar had a tough night, but we told him at halftime, ‘We’re going to keep attacking.’ He made some tough shots in there and they had a pretty good game plan. Reese came alive, hitting some shots in the second half.” Ortman drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to open the third quarter. But, Reese Kangas started an 11-point Iron Mountain run with back-to-back 3-point shots. At the end of the third quarter, Reese Kangas had 14 points while Oskar’s total had climbed to 10. “Reese, he lives the game,” Johnson said. “He’s all about basketball. I give him credit, he’s the older brother (to Oskar) and just plays his role and you can see what he can do once he gets going.” For Oskar Kangas, it is a good feeling to see his older brother succeed. “It feels good, because I know a lot of teams are keying in on me, so when he can get open and he can get shots it’s better for the team,” Kangas said. Ortman kept attacking in the fourth quarter and added 11 points. But it was too little too late as the Mountaineers secured the win. “Our effort was tremendous tonight,” Gallino said. “We missed too many layups and our offense was kind of stagnant at times. … This is a good test for us, we had a good test with Escanaba and then a good test with Iron Mountain. It’s only going to make us better.” Oskar Kangas finished the game with 19 points. He also had 11 rebounds, one assist and a block. The Mountaineers also received contributions from Reese Kangas (17 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist), Gerald Sampoll Torres (8 points, 2 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal), Ian Martilla (3 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist), Matthew Colavecchi (4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal), Evan Copley (7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals) and Kayden Sheldon (1 rebound). Ortman finished with 22 points. He also added 10 rebounds and an assist. The Knights also received contributions from Popp (3 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block), Bryce Adams (7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist), Baij (4 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists), Anthony Pineda (2 rebounds) and Trudeau (4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 steal). Iron Mountain is in Ishpeming today at 6:15 p.m. while the Knights welcome Niagara to town at 6:30 p.m.

https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/sports/local-sports/2023/12/takin-care-of-business-mountaineers-overwhelm-host-wykons-in-rout/ DEC 9, 2023 DAILY NEWS STAFF REPORTS IRON RIVER — The Iron Mountain Mountaineers jumped out to a 30-4 lead after the first quarter against host West Iron County on Thursday and never looked back in their 91-18 rout of the Wykons in a WestPAC Conference game at Charles Greenlund Gymnasium. Oskar Kangas scored 10 of his game-high 20 points in the opening eight minutes, while Ian Marttila knocked three 3-pointers in the first quarter as Iron Mountain (3-0) left the Wykons (0-4) in the dust. “We played good,” IM coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said. “Everybody scored.” The Mountaineers, who led 55-6 at the halftime break, finished with five players in double figures. Reece Kangas wound up with 16 points, Evan Copley totaled 14 and both Kaden Sheldon and Marttila finished with 11. Additionally, Matthew Colavecchi recorded six and Gerald Sampoll Torres had five. Aiden Ellis, Brayden Kassin, Max White and Collin Punzel all scored two. The Mountaineers shot well from beyond the arc, hitting nine triples in the game. Aside from Martilla’s three, Copley and Sheldon splashed two each, and Reece Kangas and Sampoll Torres added one apiece. West Iron was led by Elijah Oberlin, who tallied 14. Oberlin scored 10 of his points after halftime. Both teams have busy road schedules ahead. The Wykons were back in action Friday at Bark River-Harris (0-1). West Iron then travels to Forest Park on Monday, Dec. 11, and to Kingsford on Tuesday, Dec. 19, to complete its pre-holiday schedule. The Mountaineers travel to Manistique (1-1) on Monday, Norway on Friday, Dec. 15 and Ishpeming on Monday, Dec. 18 to round out their 2023 slate. — Daily News sports writer Jerry DeRoche compiled this report.

https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/sports/local-sports/2023/12/slam-dunk-mountaineers-rout-miners-61-39-for-second-win/ DEC 2, 2023 JERRY DEROCHE Daily News Sportswriter IRON MOUNTAIN — All coaches want their teams to improve game to game. While that is nearly impossible to do during the arduous three-month long regular season, the successful teams do build to a crescendo by the time the district tournaments begin. Just two games in, Iron Mountain has begun that ascent. After defeating Gladstone in the opener in a low-scoring affair, the Mountaineers got untracked offensively Thursday night and routed Negaunee 61-39 in a West Pac Conference game at Mountaineer Gym. It wasn’t just the 10 additional points the Mountaineers scored after beating Gladstone by eight on Monday. It was the quicker start and the lightning transition game that Iron Mountain showcased in the second game. Oskar Kangas scored 11 of his team’s 13 points in the opening eight minutes as the Mountaineers grabbed control of the contest and took a 13-2 lead after one quarter. The lanky junior finished with 28 points, while Gerald Sampoll Torres totaled 15 and Reece Kangas added 10. “We got off to a much better start offensively,” IM coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said. “I thought Oskar got going, had some nice steals and some nice dunks. Certainly, everybody likes to see that, the fans like it and the kids get excited about it.” “First game we started kind of slow, but we improved in practice two days in a row,” Sampoll Torres added. Thursday’s game was just another in a long line of tough, physical and spirited battles between the Mountaineers and the Miners. Both teams guarded extremely hard and aggressively on and off the ball, crashed the glass with gusto and fought through the multitude of screens like wolverines. The result was a foul-filled encounter with tempers boiling over at times. The teams combined for 34 fouls, with IM whistled for 22. “It was a physical game,” Johnson said. “We were just really scrappy. Guys were diving on the floor getting after loose balls and some of those fouls, and they were fouls, were just aggressive fouls. But we fouled too much and that’s something we want to clean up.” After building a double-digit lead after the first quarter, the Mountaineers hit Negaunee (0-2) with a 14-2 run over the last six minutes of the second quarter to push their lead to 29-12 at the break. While the Mountaineer offense has started to find its form, the defense has been tenacious and stingy from the first whistle of the first game. On Thursday night, the Miners scored just 20 points in the first 20 minutes of the game. Johnson pointed to his team’s versatility with all his rotation players able to guard several spots on the floor. Sampoll Torres offered the simplest explanation for his team’s defensive prowess through two games. “We play pretty hard out there,” Sampoll Torres said. Negaunee came out of the halftime break with three buckets, but the Mountaineers took off again 2½ minutes into the third. Reece Kangas knocked down his first 3-pointer of the game, followed by a steal and layup by Sampoll Torres, a steal and dunk from Oskar Kangas and a 3-pointer from Evan Copley to shove the Miners back into a 45-20 hole. Iron Mountain took its largest lead of the night at 59-29 on a layup by Reece Kangas with 5:51 remaining. Copley followed his impressive opener with six points and some excellent defense in the stead of starting forward Matthew Colavecchi, who was in foul difficulties much of the night. Ian Marttila, still finding his way back into his basketball form after missing last season with a foot injury, scored two points for the victors. Gavin Saunders was the only Miner in double figures with 12 points. The Mountaineers are off until Thursday, Dec. 7 when they travel to West Iron County (0-2) to begin a six-game stretch of games on the road. Iron Mountain will not play another home game until Jan. 11 against Escanaba.

https://www.ironmountaindailynews.com/sports/local-sports/2023/11/starting-strong-mountaineers-overcome-braves-for-season-opening-51-43-win/ NOV 29, 2023 JERRY DEROCHE Daily News Sports Writer IRON MOUNTAIN — At the end of the first quarter of Monday’s boys basketball season opener between visiting Gladstone and Iron Mountain, the teams had combined for 14 points. At halftime, the score was 19-15. Yes, there may have been some first-game rust and jitters that contributed to the low scoring, but the Braves and the Mountaineers set an early defensive physical tone to the contest, which as much as anything caused the offensive struggles. The teams did break free a bit in the second half — Gladstone in the third quarter and Iron Mountain in the fourth — as the Mountaineers eventually ended up with a 51-43 victory at Mountaineer Gym. Junior star Oskar Kangas led the way for the victors with 22 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists. But even the high-scoring 6-6 junior had difficulty sinking shots in the first several minutes. “I started out kind of slow,” Kangas said. “We knew they were going to be a physical team. Four of their five starters have started since they were sophomores so we knew they were going to be strong.” His coach agreed. “They’re athletic kids and they’re tough and their coach (Jake Kiesby) had them well prepared,” IM coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said. “I mean, we don’t face that kind of stuff in practice. It’s hard to simulate. “So yeah, we didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from the perimeter but part of that was first game probably, and part of that was Gladstone. So all that stuff combined to make it look like the game it was but we’ll take it.” The Braves scored six of the game’s first eight points on two driving buckets by senior Kaden Gibbs and an interior hoop by senior Nick Matthews. IM scored just two points in the first six minutes of the game, a driving layup by point guard Gerald Sampoll Torres. The junior added a pull-up jumper and a layup before Kangas sank a short jumper off an inbounds play to lift the Mountaineers to an 8-6 lead after the first quarter. Both teams put heavy pressure on the ball and bodies on bodies off the ball from the opening tip. Kiesby said his team gave the effort he’s looking for. “I thought the guys played hard and that’s a big thing for us,” said Kiesby, who was Marquette’s junior varsity coach last season. “That’s something that I take pride in, and they take pride in. It’s a learning curve for them. They’ve had to learn a whole new defense and a whole new offense in less than two weeks.” The second quarter was more of the same. But Kangas did go on a mini-run with seven consecutive points to give his team a 15-7 edge with four minutes to play before halftime. Shortly after, the Braves answered with a 5-0 run to pull within two with 2:07 remaining before intermission. Sampoll Torres upped the Mountaineer lead to 19-15 with two free throws 16 seconds later and that was it for the scoring in the opening 16 minutes. The IM point guard was the steadying force much of the night for his team, finishing with 14 points, including 8 of 10 from the foul line, and five assists. “He was aggressive and tough tonight,” Johnson said of the three-year starter. “Gerald is a student of the game and he’s a pretty intelligent player on the court.” Kangas appreciates all of that and more in his team’s floor leader. “Gerald’s probably one of the best ball handlers I’ve ever played with,” said Kangas, who plays on the AAU circuit in the offseason. “How shifty he is, how crafty he is, and how he works at it. I’m just honored to play with a guy who can handle the ball like that and can make the right plays at the right time.” The tenacious defenses continued to control the game as neither team scored in the first 3½ minutes of the third quarter. But a 3-pointer by Gladstone senior Elliot Vitito broke the ice at the 4:41 mark. About two minutes later, the Braves embarked on a 10-2 run that led to a 31-27 lead after three quarters. Senior Drake Johnson sparked the run with a baseline jumper and a 3-pointer, all the while continuing to provide a strong defensive presence against Kangas. “Oskar’s a great player and we had to be physical with him,” Kiesby said explaining Johnson’s defensive assignment. Down five early in the fourth quarter, the Mountaineers got a big play from junior reserve forward Evan Copley. In for starting forward Matthew Colavecchi, who was saddled with four fouls, Copley drilled a momentum-changing 3-pointer to pull IM within two. Kangas then scored in the post 30 seconds later and the game was tied at 33. “That was a great three by Evan,” Johnson said. “The other thing he did was he got a loose ball rebound on a missed free throw. He did well and I’m proud of him in his first varsity action in a crunch-time game.” Johnson put his team back up with a jumper from the left baseline but soon after the Mountaineers made their final push. Copley and Sampoll Torres split a pair of free throws each just before Kangas intercepted a pass near halfcourt and drove for a lay up. On IM’s next possession with Gladstone sagging in on him in the left block, Kangas hit his brother Reece in the corner for a crucial trey that left the Mountaineers with a 40-35 edge and forcing Kiesby to burn a timeout. “We knew that I’m going to get doubled down in the post, so just being able to get some good action backside so Reece can get open,” Oskar said. “That’s something we’ve been working on for years. He likes that corner three.” IM slowly pulled away from there, mainly at the free-throw line. Sampoll Torres sank 4 of 4, while Oskar Kangas and Copley hit two each and Ian Marttila added one. Other than the totals for Kangas and Sampoll Torres, the Mountaineers received five points from Marttila and Copley, four from Reece Kangas and one from Colavecchi. “All I can ask from the guys is that they battle for each other, and that the effort will be there every night,” Kiesby said. “We’ll clean up the Xs and Os and we’ll get smoother offensively.” Color Johnson impressed. “I think Gladstone is going to win some games,” he said. “Overall it was just a real tough game and the kids persevered.”