Dollar Bay-Tamarack City’s Evelyn Moilanen looks to throw the ball in as Emily Jokela (12) of Lake Linden-Hubbell guards her on Monday in a Division 4 District 98 quarterfinal game against the Lakes in Lake Linden. (Eddie O’Neill/Daily Mining Gazette)

LAKE LINDEN — The Lake Linden-Hubbell Lakes girls basketball squad stayed afloat in their MHSAA Division 4 District 98 quarterfinal game against the Dollar Bay-Tamarack City Blue Bolts with a 70-39 win.

It was the third time these two teams had met, and while the outcome was the same, it was Dollar Bay’s best effort. They led 8-4 and 10-9, before the Lakes took 15-10 lead after the first quarter.

That turned into a 20-10 lead by the Lakes and an eventual 30-18 advantage at half. Size, experience and athleticism certainly made the difference for the Lakes.

“I really liked the play of Emily Jokela,” noted her coach, Jack Kumpula. “She was on tonight.”

So “on” that she scored more that half of her team’s points with 37.

According to her coach, she is now less than 20 points away from hitting 2,000 career points for the Lakes.

“That is a big deal for her,” Kumpula added.

The third and fourth periods were much the same with the Lakes outscoring the Blue Bolts 27-10 in the third and 13-11 in the fourth.

Cleo Milkey followed Jokela in scoring with 12 points.

As for the Blue Bolts, they had three girls in double figures. Macy Jurgensen led with 11 points, while Aubrey Karppinen and Sophie Berryman both had 10.

Blue Bolts coach Devin Schmitz said the season as a whole was quite an improvement from the previous year – his first as the girls’ varsity coach.

“First and foremost,” he said, “we won four times as many games. We won eight this year as opposed to just two last year. Knowing we can win made this season a lot more fun. We put a lot of work in, and it is good to see things pay off. You saw some of that tonight as we made good decisions, slowed the game down and worked the ball well.”

UP NEXT

The Lakes will travel to L’Anse tonight to face the Purple Hornets in a District 98 semifinal game. While they have beat the Purple Hornets twice, Kumpula noted that it was just by four points total.

“We will have to step up our game and put together another complete game,” he said. “We have to have that win mentality going into it.”