Dennis Mansfield | Iron Mountain Daily News Iron Mountain freshman point guard Gerald Sampoll Torres (10) drives to the hoop where he is met by Bark River-Harris’ Anthony Miley (1) during a Division 3 District 66 semifinal in Iron Mountain Wednesday.

IRON MOUNTAIN — The Division 3 District 66 game that seemed to be a certainty heading into tournament play has come to fruition. The top-seeded and No. 1 ranked team in the Upper Peninsula, Menominee, will take on second-seeded Iron Mountain for all the marbles on Friday night in Iron Mountain.

Both teams did as expected in the semifinals Wednesday night as the Mountaineers blew past Bark River-Harris 83-54 and the Maroons crushed Manistique 65-21.

The District 66 final is set for 6 p.m. today at Mountaineer Gym.

“We knew this game could occur, and here we are,” IM boys varsity coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said of the matchup.

Johnson’s team, which began the season with almost no varsity experience, comes into the final off its top offensive performance of the season. Joey Colavecchi poured in a career-best 24 points, Oskar Kangas scored 22 and Reece Kangas added 11 points for the Mountaineers, who took an 8-2 lead early in the first quarter and never looked back.

“The kids came out and did what we asked them to do,” Johnson said. “They executed fairly well, got some transition points. For this group’s first tournament game, I thought they handled themselves pretty well against a team that started all five seniors.”

The Broncos (10-12), under first-year coach Nicholas Lippens, entered the game with a plan to attempt to contain Oskar Kangas. Understandably so, as the 6-foot-5-inch freshman has become a consistent 20-plus per game scorer.

But what Bark River-Harris didn’t expect was for the Mountaineers to run like the wind.

“Coming in, we wanted to limit Oskar Kangas to 20-25, and we did that,” Lippens began. “We thought if we limited him and if we could come out and put up 55 points, that we would be in the game. But they came out, and they just played phenomenal.

“They were faster than I thought they were going to be. They pushed the pace, and they exposed us in the first half doing that.”

The main trackster was Colavecchi, who had seven points in the first quarter attacking the hoop and then seven more in the second quarter on a layup in transition, a 3-pointer and a tip-in.

Those who know the Mountaineers know that Colavecchi is a terrific athlete and this game, with its quick pace, seemed tailor-made for the junior.

“I thought Joe was real good in transition,” Johnson said. “He can get to the rim, and he can get there fast.”

As a whole, Iron Mountain (16-5) looked comfortable offensively against Bark River-Harris, whether in the front court or in transition. Aside from the top three scorers, the Mountaineers received eight points from Ian Marttila and six points each from Gerald Sampoll Torres and James Chartier.

The freshman Sampoll Torres played one of his better games against the Broncos, running the offense well, taking care of the basketball and hitting two outside jumpers and a layup in transition.

“Gerald had a pretty good floor game,” Johnson said. “He’s slick with the ball, and he made a couple of shots.”

Bark River-Harris had balanced scoring as well. Trizden Tufnell and Logan Getzloff led the way with nine points each, followed by Kaden Drossart with seven and Anthony Miley and Trevor Lippens with six each.

But after falling behind 25-12 after the opening quarter, the Broncos were playing uphill all night long. They trailed 48-26 at halftime and 70-43 after three quarters.

Coach Lippens said the season came with the ups and downs that were expected.

“Coming in, this group didn’t have much experience,” Lippens said. “I think (we) lost the top seven minutes guys from last year. And I’m a brand new coach, so there was a learning curve. We started playing better at the end, but it was a rollercoaster. We would play really good two games, and then, boom, we’d lay an egg.”

Meanwhile, the Mountaineers advance to a game they’ve been looking at and a team they’ve been studying for a while now. Menominee has been ranked No. 1 in the U.P. all season long, and the Maroons play tremendous halfcourt defense, have length and quickness and present a lot of problems for opposing teams if they get out in transition.

Of course, Johnson knows all of this.

“We have to stop their initial surge, and that means take care of the ball and guard them and not let them get fast breaks,” Johnson explained. “We know what their tendencies are and what they want to do.

“I think your body of work for the season has to carry you into (this kind of game). We need to keep it close and be within striking distance. But they call it ‘March Madness’ for a reason and so here we go.”