MANCELONA — Two big additions keyed another Mancelona boys basketball victory Tuesday night.
One was already at Mancelona. The other came from abroad.
Sophomore Jackson Bennett scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Ironmen to a 65-45 win over Central Lake in Tuesday’s Ski Valley Conference boys basketball game at Mancelona.
Six-foot-5 foreign-exchange student Ivan Kuzmanoski added 13 points and 10 rebounds as Mancelona stayed undefeated in Ski Valley play.
Bennett, a 5-11 guard, came off the bench as a freshman but is making his presence known more this season. His previous career-high was 14.
“I worked a lot on my shooting,” Bennett said. “I just tried to get better and help my teammates get better. Lots of drills in the offseason. I was in the gym a lot.”
“He did not shoot great last year, and he worked really hard this summer,” Mancelona head coach Brian Sheridan said. “He’s just got a soft touch. He’s made the most threes of anybody on the team this season. He’s playing really well and gets better every day. We’re excited about him.”
Kuzmanoski, who plays guard and defends the paint on defense, is averaging 12 points, 10 rebounds, three steals and three assists a game.
“He’s been a nice addition,” Sheridan said. “That was a big surprise. We heard one of our teachers was getting an exchange student, and he said the kid liked basketball. He showed up to tryouts and we were excited. … Macedonia to Mancelona, it’s like a perfect fit.”
Aiden Dixon produced 10 points and nine steals as the Ironmen defense forced 23 Trojan turnovers by halftime.
Kuzmanoski and Bennett gave the Ironmen a quick 6-0 lead on 3-pointers against Central Lake’s zone defense. Mancelona would bury six 3-pointers in the game — five of those by Bennett.
“They’re a pretty quick team,” Central Lake head coach Chase Hibbard said. “Last time we played them, we played man and struggled with it. I figured we’d drop into a zone, trying to take away at least the drive penetration, which we did. But of course, they were hitting 3-pointers.”
Mancelona (12-2, 9-0 SVC) led 14-8 after one quarter and 33-22 at halftime, with Bennett scoring 16 by the intermission.
“We had a really strong first quarter,” Sheridan said. “We turned them over at ton and were able to convert. Then the second quarter just turned into kind of a clunky, sloppy game. We looked really good defensively, and then we were throwing it away on the other end.”
Owen Krino added six points and Tavin Morgan five for Mancelona.
The Ironmen defense held Central Lake’s potent guard combo of Drayten Evans and Garrison Barrett to season-low scoring outputs of 10 and 12 points, respectively. Six of that 22 combined points came in the first half.
“Our defense was pretty good,” Bennett said. “Everyone was rotating and moving around. We got a lot of turnovers, and just needed to capitalize on them on offense.”
Evans came into the matchup averaging 21.2 points and 5.0 rebounds per game, with Barrett chipping in 17.9 points and 3.1 steals.
Grant Miller came off the bench to tie Barrett for the team lead with 12.
“It’s hard to run the table in your league, especially when you’re number one and everybody knows what you’re doing,” Sheridan said. “You’ve got a target on your back and everybody plays their best game against you. It’s going to be a gauntlet the second half, but we’re looking forward to it.”
The only time the Ironmen won the Ski Valley Conference title — in 2021 with star guard Jayden Alfred leading the way — they lost a game to Johannesburg-Lewiston along the way. Coincidentally, that’s who Mancelona plays Thursday on the road.
“We still have to keep our head down and stay focused to win out in the league,” Bennett said. “That’s our goal this year.”
The Ironmen have a one-game league lead on Bellaire, which hosts East Jordan on Wednesday. Mancelona and Bellaire (8-3, 7-1 SVC) meet up a second time Feb. 20, the second-to-last regular-season game for both after the Ironmen won their meeting last week by a single point.
The Trojans (4-9, 2-6 SVC) haven’t beaten Mancelona since sweeping both 2018-19 season matchups.