Gladstone Routs Escanaba On 'Senior Night', 81-60

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Braves honored their five seniors and then rolled over their biggest rivals, the Escanaba Eskymos, 81-60, before a standing-room-only crowd Monday night in Gladstone. It was a make-up game from last Friday's snow-out.

The Braves swept the regular season series, and closed the Great Northern Conference campaign in a three-way tie for second place (4-4) with Escanaba and Menominee.

It also gave Gladstone a 14-5 overall record, and if the Braves win Tuesday night in Manistique, the 15 victories would be a first for the Gladstone boys hoops program since 2009-10.

Escanaba's veteran coach, Tracy Hudson, brought out his 1-3-1 defense that gave the Braves so much trouble in last spring's district tournament game. But on Monday, the Braves shattered that defense with eleven three-pointers in the first half alone.

The Eskymos did their best to keep up, and it was their top two scorers, Tyler Willette and Ryan Robinette, who managed to do that for a while.

After the Braves hit four three-pointers to take a 16-8 lead, the Eskymos came back with eight straight points to tie the game at 16. In the second quarter, Gladstone went on a ten-point run to take a 33-20 lead, but the Eskymos came back behind four long three-point baskets from Robinette. Escanaba closed to within 38-33 at halftime.

But the third quarter saw the Braves pull away as sophomore Rudy Peterson hit his fourth three-pointer of the game and Reece Castor nailed back-to-back triples.

And there was some pretty passing between Joe Gibbs and Brad Spindler on a couple of occassions that led to lay-ups. And Gibbs had an emphatic slam dunk for some icing on the cake, making it a 68-51 Gladstone lead, heading into the final few minutes.

Gladstone Coach Clayton Castor started all five of his seniors to start the game on Senior Night: Hunter Botruff, Gibbs, Ben Schwalbach, Jack Stephenson, and Casey Wolf.

They played the first four minutes...and then played the final few minutes, as a group.

Castor led the way with 25 points as Gladstone had four boys finish in double figures. Peterson had 15 points, Spindler 14, and Gibbs chipped in 11 points.

For Escanaba (12-8 overall), Willette was dominant, with 26 points on ten baskets and six free throws. Robinette had 16 points, including four three-pointers.

Gladstone visits Manistique Tuesday night. That game will be broadcast live in Manistique on WTIQ-AM (1490). It can also be heard on-line at www.radioresultsnetwork.com/maverick/.

And then next Wednesday night, the Eskymos and Braves will meet again.

This time, it will be in the MHSAA Class B district semifinals in Escanaba. The old saying about it being hard to beat a team three times in a single season will be tested for a third strsight year.

In each of the last two seasons, Gladstone has swept both regular season games, only to see Escanaba win the district tournament game.

Next Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600), and on-line here at http://www.rrnsports.com, starting at 6:45 p.m.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Brenda Crow, and video highlights taken by Mike Dagenais.