ManistiqueÕs Joey Hoholik shoots over Escanaba defenders Carter Hudson (24) and Peyton Fedell during TuesdayÕs game at Escanaba. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Austin Hemmingson)

ESCANABA — The Escanaba boys got all they could handle from the Manistique Emeralds Tuesday night, but in the end they prevailed with a 77-70 non-conference basketball victory in their first home game in exactly three weeks.

The U.P.’s fourth-ranked Eskymos (8-4) looked like they were going to run away with this one early, building a 25-10 lead after a floater by Peyton Fedell with 6:44 left in the second quarter.

But the Emeralds had other ideas.

With Esky ahead 35-21 with three minutes left in the first half, the Emeralds went on a 9-1 run to go into halftime down by just six.

That momentum carried into the second half, with the Emeralds (1-9) gaining their first lead at 42-41 on a pullup jumper by Schyler Andersen with 4:54 left in the third.

“I think the coaches tried to sell it as, ‘Hey, this is going to be a tough battle,'” Esky coach Tracy Hudson said. “They played some of our (common) opponents really tough, and we had to cover the perimeter. We were up 15 and they just kept battling. The Andersen kid got hot, some of the other guys started knocking down shots, and we just had to battle and fight them off.”

Leading 51-50 with 1:46 left in the third quarter, the Eskymos made the most pivotal run of the game. They scored eight of the next 10 points to lead 59-52 with 7:29 left in the game, then got a momentum-changing play when senior point guard Brandon Frazer dove on a loose ball near mid-court and threw it ahead to sophomore forward Colin Hudson for a fastbreak dunk and a 61-52 lead.

“I thought when Brandon Frazer dove on that loose ball and we got that transition basket … I thought that was a big one … just the hustle plays,” coach Hudson said. “I thought that was a big play that he got. When we were making things happen as opposed to waiting for things to happen, that’s kind of where we made our run.”

The Emeralds still wouldn’t go away, pulling within 73-67 after a pair of free throws by Joey Hoholik with 2:08 to play.

The Eskymos, however, got a big layup on a play drawn up out of a timeout from Fedell with 1:10 left to go back up by eight, and they were able to hold on from there.

“I think tonight was just about running into another really hot team and trying to hold them off,” coach Hudson said. “I just told the kids to be proud of this game, but when you run into a team like this sometimes they get hot and you’re going have to execute and hold on and make adjustments.”

Andersen led all scorers with a season-high 30 points. Hoholik added 17, while Mark Block chipped in 10.

“This was our best game offensively, for sure,” Emeralds coach Cody Kangas said. “Schyler did a great job at creating his own shot and moving without the ball. He had his best game, but not only that, our two next scorers — Mark Block and Joey Hoholik — got into the teens as well. When we get those three guys going offensively, we really do mesh well in our scheme.”

Fedell led Esky with 27 points and four steals, while Carter Hudson added a double-double with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Colin Hudson, making just his second varsity appearance, finished with nine points, three blocked shots and three rebounds. Frazer was limited to five points but grabbed seven boards and dished out four assists.

Esky committed eight turnovers and the Emeralds had 11. Esky shot 25 for 61 from the field, while the Emeralds were 26 for 56. The Eskymos also utilized their size advantage, outrebounding Manistique 36-24 and getting to the charity stripe for 26 free throw attempts, where they made 21 of them.

“It’s frustrating,” Kangas said. “It’s kind of been the story of our season so far… Out of our 11 games, I believe five have been very close and at the very end we just haven’t been able to get over the hump in one of those. It’s kind of frustrating on the sidelines knowing whatever we do defensively, we cannot match up with the height they had. That led to foul trouble for us and them getting easy buckets on putbacks.”