CALUMET — On Tuesday night, at Calumet High School, the Copper Kings boys (1-1) welcomed the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Blue Bolts (5-0) to the hardwood. After a slow start, the Bolts battled back to win 58-47, propelled by an outstanding 24-point performance from Liam Tourtillott.

In the first quarter, Dollar Bay fell behind by 11 points on two separate occasions: 16-5 and 18-7.

“I’m proud of how we played,” said Blue Bolts coach Jesse Kentala. “We had to really adjust, and tonight was the first time this season we had to adjust on the fly. I thought Calumet did some really nice things.

“They slipped to the basket exceptionally well, and their screen game and their set actions on out-of-bounds plays were excellent. I thought we were playing soft against their pressure. We knew their pressure would come, but we still didn’t handle it well. We took a punch, adjusted, and then fought back to grind out a win against a good Calumet team.”

Despite the loss, Calumet head coach Frank Bonacorsi was pleased with his team’s play.

“I am very happy with how we played tonight,” said Bonacorsi. “Considering it was the season’s second game for us, I thought we did an excellent job. I loved how we pushed the ball and our intensity.

“Dollar Bay is so well-coached, and they did a great job of counterpunching us after the fast start we had.”

The Copper Kings scored only three points in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, and Bonacorsi explained why his boys were struggling to score.

“I think we missed seven free throws in a row; it could have been more, but Dollar Bay did a good job keeping us from scoring; it wasn’t just the missed free throws,” Bonacorsi explained. Dollar Bay was speeding us up, they played a bit more intense defensively, and we didn’t take our time.

“We took a lot of quick shots, but when we slowed it down and hunted for better shots, we started to get some of those baskets, but we played a little bit rushed in our half-court sets, plus Dollar Bay did a good job limiting our opportunities to one shot, and then turning it on us and having good possessions on their end.”

Tourtillott led the Blue Bolts with 24 points, while Caleb Kentala and Baron Colbert had eight each.

Gavin Sturos’ 13 points led the Copper Kings, Micah Pieti added 12, and Trent Halonen chipped in with eight.

Each team hit a three to open the game, and two minutes later, Calumet had a 10-3 lead. The Blue Bolts broke up the run with two points, but the Kings answered with six for a 16-5 advantage. Dollar Bay went on an 11-5 run in the final minutes of the quarter but still trailed 21-16 heading into the second.

Slowing, the Blue Bolts were taking control of the game. The visitors tied it at 26 with four minutes left in the half. Thirty seconds later, Dollar Bay took their first game lead, 28-26. A 6-2 run from Calumet to finish the second quarter gave the home team a 32-30 advantage as the teams went into halftime.

Both defenses picked up their play in the third quarter. It took 1:45 for the first second-half points to be scored. By the four-minute mark of the third, it was still a tie game, 37-37. The play was back and forth, but when the quarter ended, the Blue Bolts had the lead, 42-40.

Dollar Bay clamped down on Calumet, holding them to just one point in the first four minutes of the final frame, which led to the away side’s biggest lead of the game, 52-41. The Kings started to get buckets, but it was too late, and they could not close the gap.

UP NEXT

Calumet will host Lake Linden-Hubbell Thursday, with the JV starting at 5:45 p.m.

Dollar Bay will travel to Baraga Thursday for a game that starts at 7:15 p.m.