Todd Rose | Daily Press The Superior Central basketball team poses with its MHSAA Divsion 4 District 100 trophy after beating Munising Friday in Eben.

EBEN — In front of a packed house on their home floor, the Superior Central Cougars girls basketball team defeated the Munising Mustangs 55-47 to win the MHSAA Division 4 District 100 Championship Friday night in Eben.

Cougars coach Skip Rutter summed the championship up in one word. “Unbelievable.”

“It’s surreal,” commented coach Rutter. “This has been our goal since November. It’s been our goal since last year, honestly. We’re senior strong this year, and tonight, it really showed.”

The Cougars went up early in the first quarter after trading shots with the Mustangs. After being tied at six until the 5:19 mark of the quarter, Superior Central went on a seven-point run and would outscore the Mustangs 13-4 the rest of the quarter.

Freshman Sam Johnson — who had her best performance ever at the varsity level — put the exclamation point on the quarter, however.

After scoring six for the Cougars, she fired off a half-court buzzer-beater to end the quarter that went in straight through the net to make things 19-10.

“I was just hoping it went in,” Sam Johnson commented. “I had no idea if it was going to go in or not, but I’m happy it did because that was really cool. I’m not going to lie.”

Sam ended the night leading the Cougars in scoring with 18 points followed by Emma Rutter with 12 and Riley Johnson, her sister, with 11. Maddie Begovac (9), Katrina Augustyn (3) and Maggie Rondeau also scored for the Cougars in the game.

Defensively, Sam defended one of Munising’s scoring machines Jenna Matson and helped hold her to just five points. Though she was nervous guarding the senior at first, Sam said she settled in and wished Matson had been able to finish the game — her final of her high school career — as she fouled out with 2:48 left in the game.

Sam Johnson noted the pride she had in her teammates following the win and is hopeful they can keep it up going forward.

“I’m really proud of all of us and how good we did tonight,” she said. “We just have to keep on going to win.”

Coach Rutter was not surprised by Sam Johnson’s performance.

“I can’t say enough about Sammie coming off the bench as a freshman,” he said. “It doesn’t surprise me. She is an unbelievable talent.”

However, the game was not smooth sailing by any means for the Cougars as starting senior point guard Charlotte Charlebois was injured in warm ups about 20 minutes before tip-off.

“My senior starting point guard blew her ankle out in warm ups. I don’t know if that’s ever happened,” coach Rutter said. “It throws a wrench (in our plans), but I don’t know if it can be any more of a wrench than it was tonight. I was scrambling with my starting five 10 minutes before the game. That’s what I love about this team, we are so interchangeable.

“(Charlotte) is a huge part of what we do, so we’ll have to see how she is. I’m sure she’ll get some therapy on it and, hopefully, she is good to go. If it’s not broken and bone sticking out, she’s going to be on the court. I’ll guarantee you that.”

As the Superior Central Cougars move on to face the D-4 District 99 Champions Carney-Nadeau, the Munising Mustangs head into the offseason.

“Superior Central played fantastic. Give them all the credit in the world,” said Munising coach Matt Mattson. “They were up nine after the first quarter, and we could never climb back into it.”

Mattson added how much the team’s five seniors — Jenna Matson, Lori Mattson, Alivia Killips, Mackenzie Richardson and Valerie Johnson — have meant to the program.

“We have a great group of five seniors that have been great role models for us and played to our standards, one of the things we preach about,” he said. “A combined 3.9 GPA for the five seniors we have, and we’ll miss all of them. Just fantastic individuals. Ten years down the road, we’ll see where they’re at because we have some doctors, nurses and teachers and those types of things in that locker room.”

Bailey Corcoran led the Mustangs scoring with 18, while Emmy Crisp had 14.

The Cougars now look forward to Tuesday as they play the Carney-Nadeau Wolves in a regional semifinal in Kingsford.

Munising 10 13 6 18 — 47

Superior Central 19 9 11 16 — 55

Munising — Corcoran 18, Crisp 14, Jenna Matson 5, Brisson 3, Prunick 3, Killips 2, Behning 2; FT: 17-27; Fouled out: Matson; 3-point field goals: Brisson, Matson.

Superior Central — Johnson 18, Rutter 12, Johnson 11, Begovac 9, Augustyn 3, Rondeau 2; FT: 10-15; Fouled out: Sam Johnson; 3-point field goals: Rutter 2, Augustyn, Begovac, Sam Johnson.