Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press North Central’s Luke Gorzinski soars in for a layup past Mid Peninsula’s Zach Englund during Thursday’s game in Powers.

POWERS — In their final game before district tournament play, the North Central Jets showcased their biggest strength in a 73-60 boys basketball victory over Mid Peninsula Thursday night — speed.

Both teams played well offensively, but the Jets were consistently faster down the court in this Skyline Central Conference match-up.

Senior Brien Gronmark led the Jets with a career-high 19 points and five triples on Senior Night, while freshman Luke Gorzinski poured in 18 and senior Noah Gorzinski chipped in 11.

“They did exactly as I asked them to do,” Jets coach Mike Malone said. “We put the tempo on and we ran the floor. We’re going to have to do that to score with teams if we want to have an opportunity to get wins coming down the stretch here.”

Zach Englund tied a season-high with 27 points to lead the Wolverines, while Dylan Trudell added 15 and Joe McNally chipped in 10.

The Jets (14-6, 14-5 SC) led 15-12 after the first quarter and 34-25 at halftime, then broke the game open with a 25-point third quarter.

Mid Pen coach Mark Branstrom was happy to face a fast opponent before districts. The Wolverines (8-12, 4-11 SC) open their Division 4 district tournament against Hannahville next week and then they could potentially face Rapid River in the title game. Both of those teams love to get up and down the floor.

“This team that they have is almost a perfect team to gauge yourself with,” Branstrom said, noting his team gave up at least eight points in transition in the first half. “Our detriment is speed … we get beat by speed. Right now, we have to do something to overcome that. Hopefully, our JVs will help us with that.”

The Jets led 23-15 with 4:58 left in the second quarter before Zach and Mike Englund knocked down back-to-back deep triples to pull the Wolverines within two. The Jets then responded with an 11-4 run going into halftime and their lead grew as big as 59-41 after a driving layup by Luke Gorzinski with 51 seconds left in the third quarter.

The large advantage allowed their seniors to get a big chunk of playing time in the fourth quarter, with the exception of Leo Gorzinski, who rolled his ankle on the landing while doing the opening tip.

“I was really hoping to get him some minutes tonight, but he rolled his ankle on the tip, and that’s a really, really bad thing,” Malone said. “The rest of my seniors played fantastic. They played really good together and as a collective. Good stuff.”

The Wolverines pulled to within 11 a few times in the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they would get.

“We were not executing the way we can execute. We did not get the shots we wanted to get, and that can be fixed,” Branstrom said. “Some of the guys missed their responsibilities offensively and defensively, but that stuff can be fixed. They know it — the little picks that didn’t happen where we would have had an open 3. A lot of times that didn’t happen because we weren’t hardly do anything. We didn’t hardly set a pick.”

Mid Pen held a 27-25 rebounding advantage, committed 16 turnovers and shot 17 for 47 from the field. The Jets had 11 miscues and shot 30 for 61 for nearly 50%.

The Jets, who also won the JV game 59-25, host Republic-Michigamme in their Division 4 district opener Monday. The Wolverines play Hannahville at Rapid River in their opener Wednesday.

Mid Peninsula 12 13 18 17 — 60

North Central 15 19 25 14 — 73

Mid Peninsula — Z. Englund 27, Trudell 15, McNally 10, M. Englund 6, Lehtikangas 2. FT: 20-27; F: 14; Fouled out: O’Neil. 3-point field goals: Z. Englund 3, M. Englund 2, McNally 1.

North Central — Gronmark 19, I. Gorzinski 4, Timblin 7, N. Gorzinski 11, Riley 4, Luke Gorzinski 18, Florenski 6, Casperson 2, Sampson 2. FT: 8-11; F: 19; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Gronmark 5.