Marquette’s Kaleah Puskala, center, puts up a layup between Gladstone’s Jamisyn Bergeron, left, and Veronica Hall on Thursday at Gladstone. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Todd Rose)

GLADSTONE — A rough and tumble defensive battle went the way of the Gladstone Braves as they defeated Marquette 37-30 in a high school girls basketball game on Thursday night in Gladstone.

“Our defensive side of things, it looked good,” said Braves coach Andy Cretens, whose team improved to 6-1. “We’ve been doing that most of the year. Especially the last two weeks, our defense has looked outstanding.”

A two-point basket from Megan Crow in the fourth quarter put the Braves up 33-22 with just over 5:30 left.

However, Marquette (2-7) staged an 8-0 run to close the deficit to three. But that was the last of their scoring, however, as Gladstone held them at 30 points for the final 2 1/2 minutes.

A basket and free throw by Crow and free throw by Ahna Larson made it to the final margin.

Cretens mentioned Larson as one of the Braves’ key players on defense.

“Ahna Larson’s been doing a great job,” the coach said. “She did a great on (Marquette’s Maria) Millado in the post today. She’s a good player down there and athletic, and I thought Ahna did an outstanding job on her tonight down there.”

As Gladstone enters the latter half of its season, Cretens says staying healthy will be a challenge. It’s an issue the Braves are all too familiar with.

“We’ve had so many injuries over the last four years. It’s something we’re kind of getting used to,” he said. “We’re used to that adversity and used to having other girls have to step up.”

Another player Cretens mentioned was Jamisyn Bergeron, who stepped in for a shaken-up Veronica Hall to shoot three free throws. She made all three, though the third was taken away due to a violation.

“It’s a testament to her because she’s been taking pride in what she’s doing, and she’s been coming in early before school working on her shots and getting extra reps,” Cretens said. “It showed right there.”

Crow, who is approaching 1,000 career points, led the Braves on Thursday with 20.

Marquette coach Ben Smith said the game was a bit of a regression.

“Compared to what we were doing at the start of the year, we’ve been doing things noticeably better,” Smith said. “I think tonight we reverted a little bit back to a few too many cheap and easy turnovers.

“This whole stretch has been trying to figure out how to efficiently do things on both ends of the court.”

Smith was happy with Averie Kelly’s performance. She had the tall task of defending Megan Crow. He also mentioned sophomore Megan MacPhee — who the Redmen have been utilizing with the five-quarter ruler between JV and varsity — and Olivia McMahon and Hannah Young as players he was impressed with.

“We’re definitely doing some things right,” Smith said.

Millado led Marquette with nine points, eight rebounds and seven steals.

Marquette — which won the JV game 50-26 — hosts Negaunee on Monday.