Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Madison Monkevich (10) shoots a layup against Ishpeming Thursday at Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Nicole Kamin scored 31 points as the Escanaba girls basketball team ran past Ishpeming for a 72-50 non-conference home victory over Ishpeming Thursday.

Esky (11-6) started the game on an 8-0 run until Ishpeming finally got on the board with a 3-point play by Emma Poirier just under two minutes in.

“I was really pleased at the things we were doing with the ball tonight offensively,” Esky coach Mike Beveridge said. “We were smart when we had the fast breaks when they could get to the basket, but we were patient when we needed to be, too. That was really the key tonight — get the fast break, but if not, be patient. I think we did that really well. I thought our fast breaks early on really got us going and got us off to a good start.”

The Hematites (6-12) hung around, however, and trailed just 17-13 at the end of the first quarter.

“I think defensively we did some things poorly tonight, but we got away with it,” Beveridge said. “I think our defense has to get a little tougher and tighter.”

Ishpeming inched closer just under a minute and a half into the second with a trey from Poirier to make it 21-18. Poirier then tripled again to cut the deficit to 23-21 with 5:28 left in the half.

“I thought we had a good plan on spacing the girls out and getting some corner 3s and putting the right girls in those spots,” Hematites coach Ryan Reichel said.

Kamin then responded with an 11-point barrage over the next three minutes to give the Eskymos some breathing room.

“Nicole Kamin is a once-in-a-generation type player,” Reichel said. “The last two years, we’ve had trouble matching up with her — she puts a lot of points on the board. She did whatever she wanted tonight, and that was a big deciding factor. That’s a big, tough night for us.”

Esky led 37-29 at the half and then outscored the Hematites 22-10 in the third quarter to take a 59-39 lead into the fourth and blow the game open.

“I thought overall we played our best offensive night,” Beveridge said.

“A lot of girls contributed. We got it going when we had it, and we were patient with it. It was very unselfish basketball by all the girls. I was real pleased with all the girls’ effort. It was a good team win.”

Taylor Ray added 15 points and three triples for the Eskymos, while Mari Bink chipped in 12. Poirier led the Hematites with 15, while Tia Mattila added 12.

“We’ll look at the film and try to get better because we’ve got a couple tough games coming up,” Reichel said. “I think it came down to defense tonight, and we didn’t defend well enough to put us in a position to win.”

Escanaba, which won the JV game 38-18, hosts top-ranked and undefeated Menominee Tuesday. Ishpeming hosts Manistique Tuesday.

Ishpeming 13 16 10 11 — 50

Escanaba 17 20 22 13 — 72

Ishpeming — Poirer 15, Mattila 12, Harris 8, Corp 7, Koski 4, Mead 2. F: 10; Fouled out: none; FT: 7-12; 3-point field goals: Mattila 3, Poirier 2, Harris 2.

Escanaba — Kamin 31, Ray 15, Bink 12, Barron 6, Monkevich 6, Hughes 2. F: 10; Fouled out: none; FT: 4-4; 3-point field goals: Ray 3, Bink 2 Kamin 1.