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Young Guns Lead Gladstone Past Escanaba, 54-42
 ESCANABA---If Friday night's basketball game between the Gladstone Braves and Escanaba Eskymos is any indication, the future looks bright for the Braves' program Freshman Reece Castor scored 23 points and sophomore Brad Spindler added 11 as the Gladstone Braves upended the Escanaba Eskymos, 54-42, at the Escanaba High School Gym. The win gave the Braves a regular season series sweep of their arch-rivals.  "I think one-through-12, these guys on our bench are just amazing young men. I've never seen a group that works as hard as they do. They all contribute to a win like this." Gladstone won despite falling behind, 14-5, as the Eskymos got off to a fast start. Eskymo senior Danny Van Effen scored seven points and Ryan Robinette adding five points during that early-game spurt. But the Braves stabilized from there, and they caught up quickly. "We're used to getting off to a slow start," Coach Castor said. "But after that 14 points, they only scored 28 points. Our defense, when we're playing well, is really tough. Escanaba is a nice team. To hold them to 42 points, that's a great testiment to our kids." "They answered the bell," Escanaba Coach Tracy Hudson said. "I thought we were kind of tentative guarding them on the perimeter. I thought Castor, we didn't have an answer for him. They played a great game, but I was happy with our effort."  The Braves still trailed, 16-14, after the first quarter, but they dominated the second quarter. Reece Castor scored eleven points in the second quarter, after he scored a "four-point play" with a three and a foul late in the first quarter. Casey Wolf also contributed well with seven first half points, and Spindler added seven points as well. Gladstone led, 34-26, at halftime, despite a two-handed slam dunk by VanEffen in the final seconds of the second quarter. The third quarter didn't see much scoring, as the Eskymos stayed in a zone defense and the Braves dribbled off large amounts of clock. Escanaba never got closer than eight points during the fourth quarter as VanEffen became increasingly frustrated. He missed four straight free throws in the final minutes, and was held to four total second half points. Robinette had just five in the half. "It was an awesome game,' Spindler said. "Real competitive. A lot of good passing tonight. We game-planned on Thursday to not have a lot of turnovers and I think we did a good job with that tonight."  "We're not a three-point shooting team," Hudson said. "They mixed their defenses real nice, and Gladstone played a really nice game. I told my kids that we played really well down the stretch, and we got beat by a better team tonight." VanEffen led the Eskymos with 17 points, while Robinette added ten. No other Eskymos scored more than four points. Gladstone got 23 from Castor and 11 from Spindler, plus eight points from Joe Gibbs and seven from Wolf. Gladstone (10-9) closes the regular season Tuesday at home against Manistique. That game will be broadcast live on WTIQ-AM (1490) our of Manistique, and will be broadcast over the Internet at www.wtiqradio.com. Escanaba (8-10) plays Calumet. When those two games are done, the regular season will also be done. And the district tournament begins the following Monday (March 7), and there will be a rematch between the Braves and Eskymos. In Escanaba. All over again. "We get another shot at them," Hudson said. "We're learning more every time we play them. It's going to be back in our gym. We've lost to them twice. We'll play hard." Gladstone won the JV game, 62-58, as Owen Hanson scored 19 points. Darrin Johnson and Rudy Peterson each scored 12. Escanaba's JV's got 16 points apiece from Jared Nash and Ben Willis. Escanaba's freshman team beat Gladstone, 55-52, in overtime. Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos and videos taken by Nate Bellville, and to listen to replays and interviews.  |
