Gladstone freshman Alex Prins (10) fires a no-look pass during a game against Iron Mountain on Jan. 28, 2025 at Mountaineer Gym in Iron Mountain. (Sean Chase/Daily News)

RON MOUNTAIN — Whenever you face off with the Iron Mountain boys basketball team, there’s one player you’ve got to keep tabs on — Oskar Kangas.

Kangas made his presence felt early against Gladstone, finishing with 33 points, as the Mountaineers picked up an 80-42 win on Tuesday in Mountaineer Gym.

“Give Gladstone credit, they were ready to play,” IM head coach Harvey “Bucky” Johnson said. “They are quick and athletic. They’re kind of young, but once we got going, doing what we wanted to do. It was a real good first quarter.

“Overall, Oskar had a great night. But, we had some balanced scoring behind that. That’s good to see. It was a good night. Their young guys, (Lonnie) Davey and Prins. Davey is a sophomore and Prins is a freshman, those kids carried themselves pretty well out there.”

The score wasn’t in their favor, but Braves’ head coach Jake Kiesby was happy with how his team competed.

“There are a lot of positives that we’ve worked on in practice,” Kiesby said. “How we ran our offense, set screens, moved the basketball. That’s been a lot better than what it has been in previous games.

“Defensively, they see after this game how hard you have to work to stop good teams.”

Iron Mountain opened the game on a 9-2 run with Oskar Kangas pitching in four points. Just as it looked like the Mountaineers were headed for another lopsided victory, Gladstone fought back.

Braves’ freshman Alex Prins scored five points in 40 seconds, cutting the lead to two points.

“Iron Mountain is a good team, and they shot the lights out,” Kiesby said. “They’re very disciplined and they take great looks. I thought that showed tonight. We competed for parts of it, but then it started getting away from us.

“We still had spurts where we competed. We got stops but we missed those boards. That’s what kills us. … When you get a stop you’ve got to capitalize on that.”

Despite clawing back into the game, Gladstone didn’t have an answer for the 6-foot-6 Kangas. He scored 10 points in the final five minutes of the first quarter, putting Iron Mountain ahead 24-9 entering the second.

The Braves scored 10 points in the second, however, that eight minutes ended up being the Evan Copley show.

The Iron Mountain senior hit three 3-pointers in the frame. Kangas added nine points and the Mountaineers led 44-19 at the break.

“Evan didn’t get a lot of shots early on,” Johnson said. “But when we got him going in the second, he surely came through for us there. That’s a good 1-2 punch right there.”

Kangas opened the third quarter with a layup, but Iron Mountain’s lead didn’t immediately balloon as Davey and Prins each buried a 3-pointer.

“They’re good players,” Johnson said. “If they stick with it, they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with.”

Senior Ian Marttila slowed down the run with a layup. Then Kangas took over. He seemingly couldn’t miss, scoring 10 points in the frame.

“It was a good third quarter,” Johnson said. “We had 24 points there as well.”

With the game in hand, Johnson sent out his reserves in the fourth quarter.

“We want to continue to grow our bench,” Johnson said. “Get them some confidence. We’ve been doing that in practice and we’re going to continue doing that. We’re going to need them. The more the merrier.”

Iron Mountain scored 10 points in the frame and secured an 80-42 win.

Although the Mountaineers handily beat the Braves on Dec. 10, 2024, Johnson made sure to remind his team that you can’t overlook anyone.

“Games like this are kind of hard,” Johnson said. “You should win the game, but they’ve gotten better. We’ve gotten better. We try to talk to the kids about that and inform them, ‘If you’re not ready to play, bad things happen.’ So, they did some good things.”

One area of emphasis for Iron Mountain lately has been ball security. That was on display against Gladstone as the Mountaineers limited their turnovers.

“In a few games, this year, we’ve been loose with the ball,” Johnson said. “A couple times out there tonight, we were. But, it’s gotten better because we’re making it a point of emphasis. You don’t want to turn the ball over. You’re not playing against Casper the Friendly Ghost out there. You’re playing against people with arms and hands, they’re going to mirror the ball.”

Kangas led all scorers in the contest with 33 points.

Iron Mountain also received contributions from Gerald Sampoll-Torres (3 points), Marttila (9 points), Evan Copley (17 points), Brayden Kassin (9 points), Max White (4 points) and Charles Baldridge (3 points).

Gladstone received offensive contributions from Davey (18 points), Prins (13 points), Gabe Sadler (4 points) and Teagan Reynolds (7 points).

The Braves are back in action on Thursday in Ishpeming while the Mountaineers head north to face the Hematites on Friday.