Calumet’s Trent Halonen drives hard to the basket on Monday in a game against L’Anse in Calumet. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

CALUMET — With less than a second on the clock, the L’Anse Purple Hornets’ Keegan Davidson stood on the foul line with a shot at tying a matchup against the Calumet Copper Kings boys basketball team at 56 and sending it into overtime on the road in the Calumet Gym.

Under the clamor and distraction of the Calumet crowd, Davidson had already made the first of his two free throws, and he then prepared for his second. After two bounces of the basketball, with his feet aligned, knees bent, and he released the ball, only to have it bounce off the rim, and into the hands of a Calumet defender, ending the game.

The Copper Kings won, 56-55, and they did so thanks to a lot of second-chance opportunities.

“We missed a lot of shots inside, but we were able to rebound and put it back in,” noted Calumet coach Frank Bonacorsi. “I am proud of the guys for sticking with it.”

While L’Anse scored first, it was a 13-13 knot after one. The second quarter was much the same with Calumet posting a 29-27 lead.

“At half, I told the guys to go with the fundamentals and to secure the rebounds as we were not shooting well,” added Bonacorsi.

They did just that particularly on the offensive side getting three and four shots off of rebounds and limiting L’Anse to just one shot. While the Purple Hornets were able to tie this one at 32, that is as close as they got. The Copper kings led 50-43 to start the fourth.

“Rebounding, or lack thereof, is our nemesis,” noted L’Anse coach Rob Potter. “Also, we struggle with consistency, and that showed in the third. We seem to have a couple of bad possessions in every quarter that lead to points for the other team. We will give the ball away, and the other team will score.”

In the final eight minutes, however, the Purple Hornets tied it up at 54 with around a minute left to play. Potter called a time out, and the team decided to play to win. A missed shot by L’Anse’s Sam Lee allowed the Copper Kings to take possession, and go up by two late.

“It was a good night of basketball,” said Bonacorsi. “The game ball goes to the seniors. They sealed the deal at the end.”

The Copper Kings were led by Trent Halonen who pumped in 17 points. Gavin Sturos had 16 and Micah Pieti scored 13.

Lee led the scoring for the Purple Hornets with 33. He had five 3-pointers.

UP NEXT

The Copper Kings will welcome the Iron Mountain Mountaineers Wednesday at home. The Purple Hornets will welcome the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Blue Bolts to their gym on Friday.