OVERTIME WARFARE: Maroons Overcome Braves

GLADSTONE---The game started off slowly, but ended with quite a bang.

After both teams struggled to score in the first ten minutes, the Gladstone Braves and Menominee Maroons put on quite a show down the strech, with the Maroons leaving Gladstone with a hard-earned 69-65 overtime victory over the Braves.

It was a game that had a little bit of everything, from clutch three-pointers to hard-nosed rebounds to plays that saw girls diving (and crawling) on the floor for loose balls.

In the end, the Maroons had one last push in the overtime period as the Braves made a couple of clutch turnovers that ended up in baskets and trips to the line for Menominee.

"I told the girls in the locker room that I was proud of their effort," Gladstone Coach Eric Lundin said, his voice hoarse after an emotional 36 minutes of basketball. "There were a lot of points in that game where they (Maroons) got some separation, and we came right back at them."

"We had our chances to win that game, and our kids put effort time after time after time," Lundin continued. "We're outsized against that team, I mean, that's a big team. We boxed out the best we could and we hit some big shots. So as much as you can build on a loss, I think this is one where you can. We could see these guys in the districts."

Gladstone had just one basket and two free throws in the first quarter, and by the middle of the second quarter, the Braves had just seven points, trailing, 19-7. The Maroons led at halftime, 26-15, but the Braves started to warm up with their outside shooting.

Senior Alyssa Polley made four three-pointers in the second half, and fellow senior Leigha Woelffer scored 19 of her game-high 23 points in the second half and overtime.

Gladstone was behind, 48-39, in the fourth quarter, when Woelffer made two triples in a row to make ot 48-45. Then Kaitlyn Hardwick made a tough shot to close it to a one point game, and from there, it was a Battle Royale into the final seconds.

When Menominee's Avrie Stewart split a pair of free throws to make it 56-54 with 13 seconds left, the Braves came up court to set up their offense. A wild play saw Taylor Hunter get a loose ball and nail a tough shot while being fouled. That happened with three-tenths of a second left in the game, and it was tied at 56-56.

Hunter went to the line to in effect win the game. The shot hit the front of the rim and bounced away, so the game went into overtime.

"Taylor made a tough shot and the free throw was dead on," Lundin said. "She's disappointed that she disn't make it, but I told her that we wouldn't be in overtime without her. She had a great game."

In the extra four minutes, the Braves committed a copuple of turnovers on consecutive possessions and the Maroons took advantage to build a five-point lead.

Woelffer nailed another three in the final seconds to cut it to 67-65, and then she nearly stole the inbound pass with 5.7 seconds left on the baseline. But she commited a foul, becoming the third Gladstone girl to foul out, along with Hardwick and Hunter.

Stewart sank two free throws to ice the game. She finished with 22 points to lead the Maroons. Morgan Roman added 17 poinys and Emma Hofer scored 12.

Besides Woelffer's 23 points, Hunter scored 17, and Polley added 15.

Gladstone won a low-scoring junior varsity game over Menominee, 29-26.

The Braves host Ishpeming next Tuesday, and then travel to Escanaba for a rematch with the Eskymos the following Monday (February13). The Escanaba-Gladstone game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600) and at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Eric Thompson, videos taken by Mike Dagenais, and to listen to the radio call of Hunter's tying shot...and Lundin's post-game comments.