ST. IGNACE, Mich. (WLUC) – The 36th U.P. All-Star Classic basketball games will return to St. Ignace June 18. It will mark the fifth time the game has been held in the Straits city.
Led by Mr. U.P. Basketball Jaden Borseth of Ewen-Trout Creek and Miss U.P. Basketball Reide Osterman of Baraga, 18 girls and 21 boys will participate. Special skills contests will precede the girls game at 9:45 a.m., with the boys and girls competing in 3-point shooting, girls will be in a free-throw contest and the boys will compete in a slam-dunk contest.
The Girls’ game will tip off at 11:30 am with the Boys’ game following.
The girls will practice at 4 p.m. Friday and the boys will practice at 5 p.m. The players and their parents will be guests on a Shepler’s boat tour of the Mackinac Bridge area at 8 p.m.
The girls will be split into North-South teams, using M-28 as the dividing line. The boys will be split into East-West teams by M-95. A trio of father-son duos will be on the boys teams, with Jim Suggitt and his son EJ of Rudyard and coach Tracy Hudson and his son Colin of Escanaba on the East and coach Brad Besonen and his son Jaden on the West. E-TC, which finished second in the Class D state tournament, will also be represented by four players, Eric Abramson, Kelsey Jilek, Brendan Polkky and Besonen. This will be Hudson’s final game as a boys coach. The long-time Escanaba boys coach will replace retiring Mike Beveridge as the Esky girls coach this fall.
Jaden Borseth finished his career as the Upper Peninsula’s No. 7 all-time boys scorer. He scored 2,073 points for the Class D state runner-up Panthers. Foster Wonders of Iron Mountain established the all-time record of 2,286 points last year. Dominic Jacobetti of Negaunee St. Paul set the record of 2,140 in 1965 before it was surpassed by Gage Kreski of St. Ignace in 2016 when he produced 2,178 points.
Girls South: Claire VanGinhoven, Gladstone; Lucy Bennin and Kennedy Guild, Pickford; Natalie Prophet, Westwood; Cara Zawacki, Bark River-Harris; Brooke Besteman, Rudyard; Natalie Ryvolova and Ally Schultz, St. Ignace; Tessa Paquin, Engadine. Coach: Dorene Ingalls, St. Ignace.
Girls North: Jana Loukus and Marybeth Halonen, Calumet; Emma Rutter and Riley Johnson, Superior Central; Landry Koski, Mid Peninsula; Reide Osterman, Baraga; Paige Sleeman, Houghton; Jenna Mattson, Munising; Alyssa Hill, Negaunee. Coach: Tyler Larson, Baraga.
East boys: Claudio Bistolfi, Newberry; Jayce Kipling, Ishpeming; Connor Smale, Colin Hudson and Jared Hudson, Escanaba; Tate Besteman, Rudyard; Ely North, St. Ignace; Nolan Amundson, Norway; EJ Suggitt, Rudyard; Jesse Duran, Munising; Jonas Bicek, Marquette; Coaches: Tracy Hudson, Escanaba; Jim Suggitt, Rudyard.
West boys: Zach Carlson, Marcus Boase, and Zach Beckman, Westwood; Eric Amundson, Jaden Borseth, Kelsey Jilek and Brendan Polkky, Ewen-Trout Creek; Kyle Sorenson, Wakefield-Marenisco; John Schutz, Jeffers; Marcus Sutherland, Lake Linden-Hubbell. Coach: Brad Besonen, Ewen-Trout Creek.
By Mike Ludlum, WLUC
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