Marquette’s Aspen Michelin drives to the basket against Gladstone’s Andie Belanger to make a basket during the homeopener at Maquette Senior Highschool Tuesday Dec. 10th, 2019. (Journal photo by Amy Grigas)

MARQUETTE — One of the keys to victory for the Marquette girls basketball team on Tuesday night was containing Gladstone’s top player, Megan Crow.

The Redettes did just that, limiting last year’s All-Great Northern Conference and All-Upper Peninsula First Teamer to just five points.

Despite that statistic, the Braves managed to keep things close, and it was Marquette who narrowly came out on top with a 42-39 win at the MSHS Barb Crill Gymnasium.

The Redettes (2-2, 1-1 GNC) were paced by star sophomore forward Maria Millado, who scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Millado was just as strong on the defensive end, nabbing four steals and adding a block.

“She’s super athletic, she’s got great upside and she’s kind of coming into her own,” Marquette head coach Ben Smith said. “She’s making really solid plays and I think as she continues to blossom and realize all the gifts and skills she has, I think it’ll kind of keep going in that direction.

“She’s a great kid and just our group in general, they pull hard for each other and work hard. They’re right in (Millado’s) corner, rooting her on and she’s right there rooting them back on.”

Smith added that his players are slowly beginning to step into their roles as the young season progresses.

“I think the dynamic with this team is starting to come together,” he said. “They’re finding their roles a little bit but we still have plenty of work to do on both ends of the floor. We need to fine-tune our execution with running some sets and communicating through other team’s sets.

“We’re not looking to be peaking after Game 4 anyway, but we’re starting to make some strides to where we’re competing every time.

“It’s not ‘Remember that one time we played hard on that one trip,’ it’s that we’re competing a good number of times, and now we’ve got to secure rebounds, now we’ve got to be there every time.

“It’s getting there, but we’ve got plenty of work to do. We need a couple of good days of practice this week, and then hopefully we can go downstate and compete for a couple of games in Traverse City.”

For Gladstone (0-2, 0-1 GNC), it was a third straight loss to Marquette. Head coach Andy Cretens was pleased with his team’s effort, however, especially with the Redettes keeping Crow in check all night.

“I was surprised with Megan’s total, she only had five points,” he said. “Megan Crow only scores five points, and we only lose by three points against a tough Marquette team, we’ve got to be pretty happy, right?

“The last game (versus Negaunee) she had 20 points, so we feel really good right now. There’s not many games where teams are going to hold her to five points.”

Cretens added that his team did everything it could on both sides of the basketball, but it was simply one of those nights where shots weren’t falling in key moments.

“Our defense was solid,” he said. “We held them to 42 points and if you hold a Marquette team to 42 points, you’re doing good things. We just didn’t put the ball in the basket enough times, especially in that second quarter.

“We had a lot of good looks from girls we trust shooting the basketball. They’re great shooters and we just didn’t knock them down.

“It’s early in the season and we’ve got to get our legs underneath us, but we feel good after that game.

“We did all the right things, we just didn’t knock down the shots we needed to. We didn’t make that one extra play to get over the top.”

A layup in the final five seconds of the first quarter from Michigan Tech commit Aspen Michelin gave Marquette an 11-8 lead headed to the second. The Redettes increased that lead by halftime to nine points, 26-17.

The Braves picked up the pace in the third quarter, outscoring MSHS 11-4 to climb right back into things. A running triple from Gladstone’s Maddie Ahlgren beat the buzzer to cut the Braves deficit to 30-28 after three.

Ahlgren put her team into the lead for the first time since the opening frame to begin the fourth after making a layup where she was fouled by Michelin. Ahlgren drained the free throw to complete the three-point play and make it 31-30.

The Redettes retook the lead and built it to five points, 40-35, with 45 seconds to go.

A layup from Crow made it 40-37 with 30 seconds left, and right after that, a 10-second violation on Marquette gave the Braves the ball back.

With 15 seconds left and Gladstone looking to inbound, Millado swiped the ball away from Andie Balenger on the play. Millado was immediately fouled, sinking her two free throws to ice the game.

The Braves added one more bucket as time expired to make the final three-point difference.

Marquette was 15 of 36 from the field for 41.6 percent while Gladstone was 15 of 44 for 34 percent. The Redettes were 10 of 11 at the free throw line while the Braves were 7 of 11, and MSHS picked up 32 rebounds with Gladstone collecting 22.

Michelin added eight points for the Redettes while Maddie Carter chipped in with seven.

Balenger was Gladstone’s top point-getter with 10 while Ahlgren had nine and Alaina Trudeau seven. Crow led in rebounds with 11.

Marquette travels to Traverse City on Friday and Saturday for a pair of games with TC Central and TC West, respectively. Gladstone hosts Kingsford on Tuesday.

Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.