It’s safe to say this area — and the Upper Peninsula in general — has had a very good run this year in the MHSAA boys basketball state tournament.

Both the Kingsford Flivvers and Forest Park Trojans of Crystal Falls earned the right Tuesday to play in the Breslin Center in East Lansing for the chance at a state title.

Forest Park will tip off at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time today in the Division 4 state semifinal against Wyoming Tri-unity Christian, the defending state champion.

In the Division 2 semifinals, Kingsford faces Romulus Summit Academy North at 5:30 p.m. Eastern time Friday.

Also representing the U.P. will be the Ishpeming Westwood Patriots, which downed McBain on Tuesday to reach the Division 3 semifinals at noon Eastern time today against A&T Academy of Pontiac.

So the Upper Peninsula managed to have a semifinal team in three of the MHSAA’s four divisions, which is impressive. Division 1 is the only one without — and the U.P. has only one school, Marquette, large enough to be in Division 1. Even there, Marquette did score a first-round victory over Cadillac in the tournament before bowing out in the regional final March 6 to a Flint team.

The Upper Peninsula has a lot of land — 16,542 square miles, or 28% of Michigan — but people, not so much. The entire region accounted for only about 3% of the state’s population at 301,608 in the 2020 Census. To put that in perspective, Detroit alone has more than twice as many residents at 633,218.

The communities — and schools — tend to be small. Despite this, U.P. boys basketball teams seem to find a way to hold their own when tournament time comes around, at least in the past decade, including North Central’s three straight Class D state championships from 2015 through 2017 and Iron Mountain making it to the Division 3 title game in 2019 and 2021.

Yet this year seems unique in having three teams advance. A quick scan of almost two decades of past tournaments didn’t turn up a year that saw the Upper Peninsula so well represented.

It remains to be seen just how much further they will go. The competition at that level — against the cream of downstate Michigan teams — will be intense.

But no matter the end result, Kingsford, Forest Park and Ishpeming Westwood have already given the region a reason to cheer this tournament season — and to take pride in what the Upper Peninsula can produce.

Good luck in East Lansing to all three teams.