ELK RAPIDS — After breezing to a win in the opening round of the Elk Rapids Invite, the Kingsford boys varsity basketball team (7-0, 1-0) was shaken up as seniors Morgan Sleik and Gavin Grondin battled injuries ahead of Saturday’s championship game.

The Flivvers ended up playing the title game against Jackson without Sleik but caught a break as Grondin took the floor.

Kingsford leaned on Grondin, who scored 28 points, and took home the inaugural Elk Rapids Invite with a 49-29 win over the Vikings (4-3, 0-0).

“We lost Morgan Sleik to injury in the Elk Rapids game and Gavin Grondin was sort of a game-time decision with a calf injury after he got in the first half of the Elk Rapids game,” Flivvers head coach Ben Olsen said. “Gavin was able to go out and have a prototypical Gavin Grondin game, which helped us clinch the first-ever Elk Rapids Holiday Tournament.”

Grondin hit five 3-pointers in the win and went 3 for 4 from the charity stripe.

“Gavin was able to score at all three levels,” Olsen said. “(He was) hitting long jumpers, pull-up jumpers and getting to the rim. Jackson gave us a ton of issues with their length and anything around the rim was highly contested.

“We don’t see that athleticism and length much in the U.P. and it was a great early test for our team.”

Without Sleik, Kingsford turned to Matt Sundquist and Alex Erickson in the paint. Sundquist tallied six points in the game while Erickson had three.

“They did things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Olsen said. “(I’m) really proud of how they stepped up and performed. It was tough keeping this team out of the paint.

“The game plan was to kind of pack it in and make the shot over the top which we didn’t think they would be able to make enough to beat.”

Jackson didn’t make a 3-pointer against the Flivvers. Kingsford connected on seven 3-point shots.

Grondin scored 16 first-half points for the Flivvers and they took a 22-12 lead into halftime.

Kingsford hit four threes and buried the Vikings behind an 18-11 third quarter.

The Flivvers received contributions from Owen Olkkonen (5 points), Jack Kriegl (4 points) and Jett Buckley (3 points).

Kingsford opened the tournament against Elk Rapids on Friday. It easily dismantled the Elks behind 21 points from Grondin en route to a 59-32 win in Elk Rapids.

“Elk Rapids has a great brand-new facility,” Olsen said, “we are very fortunate to be invited to come down for this holiday tournament. We jumped out pretty quick on them but they were able to weather a few of our runs and we only led by 13 at halftime,” Olsen added.

“Our half-court defense was able to play uptempo and I think it wore them down in the second half and we were able to extend our lead.”

The Flivvers distributed the scoring in the first two quarters and took a 32-19 advantage into half time.

Grondin tallied eight points in the third while Sleik and Kriegl each had four, propelling Kingsford to a 16-6 advantage in the frame. It was over from there.

“They gave us some difficulty around the rim and were able to contest a lot of our attempts at the rim,” Olsen said. “We did not shoot it overly well but our defense was able to kind of hold them at bay.”

Kingsford received contributions from Olkkonen (2 points), Sundquist (4 points), Kriegl (9 points), Gavin Trevillian (5 points), Sleik (10 points), Buckley (6 points) and Erikson (2 points).

The Flivvers are off until Jan. 3 when they head to Marquette to face the Sentinels.

“We are looking forward to the holiday break, getting some guys healthy and getting ready for the long stretch of the basketball season,” Olsen said. “We are happy to be at 7-0 but we also know we have lots of work to do to get where we want to be.”