Nathan Beckman scored a career-high 27 points and finished 9/10 at the free throw line to lead Westwood past archrival Ishpeming 47-44 on Friday.
The Patriots jumped out to a 10-2 lead but Ishpeming closed the gap with five consecutive points to end the first quarter. The Hematites trimmed the deficit to a single point with just over four minutes to play in the first half but Westwood ripped off a 12-4 run and led 24-15 at the break.
The Patriots led by as many as ten points in the second half but Ishpeming answered with a run of their own and took their first lead of the game with 56 seconds left in the third quarter. The Hematites outscored Westwood 18-6 in the third frame and led 33-30 heading into the fourth.
That’s when Beckman took command and scored 14 of Westwood’s 17 fourth quarter points, seven of which came at the free throw line. The Patriots were 16/41 (39%) from the field, 3/9 (33%) from behind the arc and 13/16 (81%) at the foul line.
Westwood is now 3-1 and visits Hancock on Monday. Ishpeming drops to 0-2 and welcomes Gwinn on Wednesday.
The Westwood junior varsity and freshman teams also picked up wins on Friday; the freshman team topped Ishpeming 49-27 while the JV won 60-20 to improve to 3-1 on the season.