Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from both head coaches, and from Mountaineer senior Oskar Kangas.

ESCANABA---The Iron Mountain High School boys basketball team jumped off to a 22-point lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 73-37 win over the Escanaba Eskymos Wednesday night in Escanaba.

The Mountaineers bounced back from last Friday's home loss to Westwood by overwhelming the Eskymos from start-to-finish in this Top Five battle.

“We had a long break, and a tough game last Friday, so we wanted to get off to a better start,” longtime Mountaineer Coach Bucky Johnson said. “The kids put in three good practices and they came out ready to play tonight. I wasn't very good over the break and neither were the kids. But we had some better practices and hopefully this leads to better things going forward.”

Mountaineers senior forward Oskar Kangas led the way with 30 points, from both inside and outside, and did not play for parts of the second and fourth quarters.

“The Westwood loss, we were slow the whole game, and it was probably one of the worst games we've had since I started playing varsity basketball my freshman year,” Kangas said. “We knew that coming into Escanaba, we had to do something to redeem ourselves, almost. We knew they switched up their defense a lot, so we had to take care of the ball, because turnovers are really what hurt us on Friday. And if we just pushed the ball up the court, we'd be fine.”

They were. And it wasn't only Kangas. Evan Copley scored 13 points in the first quarter and ended up with 15 points for the game. Ian Martilla added nine points and some tough defense.

The Mountaineers led, 29-7, after the first quarter, and 41-14 at the half. The lead grew to as big as 40 points in the third quarter, which put the running clock into motion on the mercy rule, before the Eskymos put on a 7-0 spurt to end the third quarter.

Javon Stevenson led the Eskymos with 11 points, and Hayven Sandoval-Nolde added ten points. Senior center Cody Noel tried to return from a knee injury, but tweaked it again in the third quarter, and left with an ice-pack. He did not score in the game.

“It's a shame,” Escanaba Coach Tom Gereau said. “I feel bad for Cody. He got cleared to play and we were trying to run him in slow. But he's pushing. He wants to play and I feel for the kid. I know what it's like, in high school I went through the same thing with knee issues. We've just keep our heads up.”

Gereau says his Eskymo team was hoping for a strong start that didn't happen.

“We're always hoping to come out running and gunning, but we've just been struggling with that all year, trying to get after it against these higher-ranked teams,” he said.

Kangas committed to the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh to take classes and to play basketball once he graduates from Iron Mountain this spring.

“It was kind of stressful at times with different coaches from different schools reaching out, and it was a very hard decision to make,” Kangas said. “It was huge sigh of relief when I was finally able to announce it. Obviously, they have a winning program. And just the way the team is, like, they seem to be like a big group, and they seem to enjoy being around each other. And the intensity that they play with is something that I wanted to be a part of.”

Iron Mountain improved to 6-2 on the season, after back-to-back losses to Marquette and Westwood. The Mountaineers travel to Gwinn this Friday night, before a huge battle against Kingsford next Tuesday night.

Escanaba fell to 6-6 on the season, with another tough game Thursday night in Crystal Falls against the Forest Park Trojans.