Todd Rose | Daily Press Carney-Nadeau’s Peyton Imhoff (15) takes a shot as Rapid River’s Ben Lenaker (11) and Bryce Lundquist (42) defend Tuesday night in an MHSAA Regional 25 semifinal in Westwood.

WESTWOOD — The Carney-Nadeau boys’ basketball team (12-8) worked out some early kinks Tuesday night to defeat the Rapid River Rockets (9-9) 49-38 in an MHSAA Division 4 Regional 25 semifinal in Westwood.

With the win, the Carney boys join the girls in the regional finals.

“That’s special,” said Wolves boys’ coach Paul Polfus. “We haven’t been there many times in the history of our school. Just to continue on in the tournaments here is just awesome.

“The girls are playing in the finals (Wednesday), and we get to play in the finals on Thursday. It’s pretty cool, actually.”

Rapid River went on an 11-0 run to open the game in the first half of the first quarter. Under pressure, the Wolves answered back with an 11-0 run of their own. Carney held the lead 13-11 at the end of the quarter.

“We were struggling on our zone defense in the first half,” said Polfus. “So, we switched to man the second half. We just said, ‘This is on us now. It’s just man on man.’ We did an awesome job. I thought, defensively, we took them out of a lot of stuff the second half.”

In the second half, Carney held the Rockets to a total of nine points.

Up until 2:55 remaining in the game, the Wolves lead hadn’t surpassed single digits. Then, Tim Hodson — who had 10 points total and three triples — hit a trey to extend the Wolves’ advantage to 10 and put the final nail in the coffin for the Rockets.

“We didn’t start off too good,” said Hodson. “It wasn’t looking too hot, but the second quarter came and we started working together, which helped us pull the lead.

“It felt really nice (to hit the big three). I don’t shoot very often because I don’t think I’m a very good shooter, but, the ones that go in, they really get me energized for the rest of the game.”

Hodson, who plays with a high level of energy and excitement, has a contagious attitude about the game. He said this helps the team in moments like Tuesday night’s first quarter.

“I think when we’re down, the energy helps them get back up,” he said. “That energy that I have helps them keep their energy up, too.”

When some didn’t have the Wolves making it this far in the postseason, Hodson said this win is a testament to hard work.

“That’s a dub in my book!” he said. “We fought hard for this. We were supposed to lose the first round of districts to Stephenson, and now, we’re here.”

To Polfus, the postseason success is just a bonus this year.

“It’s been a pretty nice journey,” he said. “Especially with the way this whole season went and the way last season ended, this is pretty much frosting on the cake for us.

“I give these kids a lot of credit. They dug down, especially after getting down 11-0 right away. It feels good. That’s all I can tell you.”

Beau Koffman led the Wolves with 23 points, and Max Lenaker chipped in 14. Rease Dawley collected 10.

On the Rockets’ end of things, the season comes to a close. But, according to Rapid River coach Richard Poma, the season held a lot of unexpected success and growth.

“If I were to ask anybody around here if they thought we were going to win a district title, I would say those chances (they’d give) were probably slim to none,” he said. “The way we started at the beginning, we continued to get better and better and better. We showed signs of what we could be as a team. We showed it in the first four minutes (tonight), and then we just hit a wall.”

Poma also lauded the performance of the Wolves.

“Credit to Carney. They did a great job. Those guys are scrappy,” he said. “They fly around, they’re stripping balls, they’re diving after loose balls. It’s hard. It controls the tempo of the game. No matter how hard you try to get the tempo back, when you have a team doing that, it’s damn near impossible.”

Poma echoed Polfus’ thought on just being able to play at all this year.

“I’m glad we got to play,” he said. “These guys, the seniors especially, they got cheated out of two years. Plain and simple … I’ll be the first to tell you, I didn’t think there was a chance we were going to have any games.

“Is (losing) a terrible feeling right now? Absolutely. For those guys, as seniors, especially. But, You know what, they got a district title under their belt, and not many teams can say that.”

The Carney-Nadeau Wolves will take on the Bessemer Speedboys in Negaunee Thursday night in the MHSAA Division 4 Regional 25 Championship Game at 7 p.m.

Rapid River 11 18 4 5 — 38

Carney-Nadeau 13 10 14 12 — 49

Rapid River — Max Lenaker 14, Dawley 10, Kudlick 5, Snay 5, Lundquist 3, Ben Lenaker 2, Dausey 2, Flath 1; F: 17; FT: 4-6; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Max Lenaker 2, Kudlick, Snay.

Carney-Nadeau — Koffman 23, Hodson 10, Kakuk 8, Imhoff 5, Flanagan 3;F: 10; FT: 11-16; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Hodson 3, Koffman 2, Imhoff.