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Gladstone Braves outlast Manistique Emeralds boys basketball team, 65-60

Manistique’s Sammy Warren goes up for a layup against Gladstone defenders, from left, Michael Hagebusch, Caden Alworden and Ian Schwalbach as the Emeralds’ Schyler Andersen, back left, looks on in their high school boys basketball game played Friday at Gladstone. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Justin St. Ours)

GLADSTONE — The Gladstone boys basketball team had to work for it against the Manistique Emeralds Friday night, but the Braves were able to put the Emeralds to rest with a 65-60 victory in a Mid-Peninsula Conference matchup in Gladstone.

With 6:43 remaining, Gladstone led 52-48. Thirteen seconds later, Manistique’s Schyler Andersen sank a triple to pull the Emeralds within 52-51. Andersen sank a jumper 30 seconds later to give Manistique a 53-52 advantage.

“We couldn’t pull away tonight,” Braves’ coach Dane Quigley said. “I give a lot of credit to Manistique. They shot the ball well. It seemed like every time we got something going, they’d knock down a couple 3s and get back into it.

“We’d get stagnant on offense, and we’d just go through a drought. (Manistique) came out swinging, but luckily were were able to grit this one out.”

Shortly after, Gladstone’s Caden Alworden hit one of two free throws to tie it 53-53.

Mark Block then scored to give Manistique (1-1) the advantage with 4:43 remaining.

Gladstone (2-0) was able to pull ahead over the next two minutes thanks to the efforts of Cam and Noah Ballard for a 9-2 run to lead 61-57.

Once more, Manistique fought back with a triple from Joey Hoholik to pull back within one with three minutes left.

Thirty seconds later, Rane Castor grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed free throw and got it to Cam Ballard, who put the Braves up 63-60.

Both teams had opportunities to score and both had trouble capitalizing in the final minutes before Cam Ballard finally hit two bonus free throws to seal the game.

The Braves jumped out to an 11-3 lead halfway through the first quarter, but the Emeralds hit three triples to stay within 18-14 at the end of the period.

“To be honest, I was very pleased we were just playing basketball,” Emeralds’ coach Cody Kangas said. “We have a set offense and a transition offense that we used almost all day today. We played it pretty well tonight. I’m also really pleased with our bench play.”

Manistique took its first lead halfway through the second after another trey from Andersen to lead 21-20, and the Emeralds refused to go down quiet the rest of the way, taking the lead back twice more before the fourth quarter.

“We know where our strength lies,” Kangas said. “We’re good shooters, but our mentality has to be more on the defensive side now. I told our guys that we need to be a team that moves the ball around and gets good looks — which we did tonight — but we’re not going to beat teams going into 60 or 70 points.

“If we want to win ball games — even though we can score in the 60s — we’ve go to keep teams in the 50s. Defense is going to be a hot topic next week.”

Hoholik led the Emeralds with 17 points and four triples. Andersen followed with 15 points and three treys. Block rounded out the top scorers with 11 points.

The Braves were led by Castor with 20 points and seven rebounds.

The Braves won the JV game 77-20.

Manistique hosts Iron Mountain Monday, while Gladstone travels to Marquette Tuesday.

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