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Classic matchup delivers

Redmen overcome lack of experience to pull out 57-53 win over Negaunee

Marquette Senior High School's Bryce Brazeau, center, passes the ball against the defense of Negaunee High School's Jason Waterman, left, and Trent Bell, right, on Monday, Jan. 16, 2017, at Marquette Senior High School. (Journal photo by Jess Makela)

MARQUETTE — Despite being a classic matchup between two of the three best Class A-B-C teams in the Upper Peninsula, the Negaunee High School boys basketball team might’ve had a decided advantage against Marquette.

And it held that way for most of the first 3 1/2 quarters until a late Redmen rally got them a 57-53 victory on Monday night.

Even though the game was played at the MSHS gym, the Miners had a decided advantage in experience.

Negaunee’s two big stars, Dre Tuominen and Trent Bell, are seniors who not only have vast varsity playing experience, but are two of the best in the U.P. at their positions — Tuominen at point guard and Bell at big, or more accurately, long forward.

The remainder of the Miners’ roster save one — head coach Dan Waterman’s freshman son Jason Waterman — are juniors and seniors.

In contrast, Marquette starts two freshmen and has four sophomores who see varying amounts of playing time. That’s half the 12-man roster.

“We struggled on offense for awhile in the first half, but that’s to be expected with a young team like this,” Marquette head coach Brad Nelson said. “You have to remember, this is the first time they’ve played in an environment like this.”

The atmosphere was charged even though it wasn’t quite a packed gym with room to move in highest reaches of the bleachers.

But each school brought sizable student sections the likes of which probably evoked the term “bleacher creatures” in their parents’ day. They dressed for the occasion in school colors and probably would’ve had enough chants at hand to take care of a daily double of games.

Senior Alex DuVall kept the Redmen heads above water in the first half, scoring 15 of his team’s 20 points as Negaunee led 26-20.

Marquette led right out the gate, but the Miners took control with back-to-back three-point plays about 35 seconds apart in the middle of the first quarter.

First, senior Brock Aho sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key without a defender within 15 feet, then the 6-foot-7 Bell was fouled going up strong underneath the hoop and added the ensuing free throw to turn a 6-4 deficit into a 10-6 lead.

With a number of putbacks padding both his scoring and rebounding stats, Bell led Negaunee in the first half with 12 points.

But he only managed a single point after halftime, thanks to renewed defensive efforts by MSHS.

“We focused a lot on boxing out,” Marquette senior Garrett Finkbeiner said about the difference in halves.

Dan Waterman had a bit of a different opinion.

“We got outworked and out-toughed,” the Negaunee coach said. “I don’t think we had a single defensive rebound in the second half.”

The Miners’ lead yo-yo’ed from 4 to 10 points until halfway through the third quarter, when the home team tied the game twice.

But Negaunee never fell behind, building its lead back to seven, 45-38, and still led by six, 47-41, with 4:52 left in the game.

A critical meltdown by the Miners on a foul call led to four straight free throws for Marquette. A foul was called in the double bonus, with a technical foul added on during a protest of that call.

MSHS freshman Joe Ostrowsky calmly sank all four shots he was given, putting the Redmen ahead 52-51, their first lead since it was 6-4.

Negaunee got the lead back one more time on a pair of Aho free throws, but DuVall sank 3 of 4 free throws in the final 20 seconds to make Negaunee’s last-gasp comeback nearly moot.

“This will be a great learning experience for our young guys,” Nelson said. “We had success because we have absolutely no selfishness on this team. They don’t care who scores, who gets the rebounds. It’s all about the team.”

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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