WHY THEY PLAY THE GAME! Braves Pull Stunner

MENOMINEE---Andie Balenger's three-point shot as time expired gave the Gladstone High School girls basketball team a massive upset in the first round of the MHSAA playoffs Monday night as the Braves stunned the previously-undfeeated Menominee Maroons, 46-45, in Menominee.

The Braves scored the final 13 points of the game to pull the biggest upset of the girls basketball season, handing the top-ranked Maroons their first loss.

"Even though we thought we had a really good chance, it's hard to wrap your head around it," Gladstone Coach Andy Cretens said. "When it actually happens, and especially, the way it happened, for a senior, like Andie, one of the hardest workers in the entire U.P., to knock down a shot like that, she deserves it. It's huge for her."

The Braves got the ball with 9.1 seconds to play, and the entire length of the huge Menominee High School court to navugate.

"It was supposed to be me passing it in to for the Maddie (Ahlgren) for the three," Balenger said with a laugh. "Instead, it was the exact opposite."

Instead, Ahlgren dribbled through the Maroon press, and got it to Balenger on the right wing with just one second to play. What was Balenger thinking?

"Kind of like an 'oh, crap'," she said. "But I was like, OK, I've got to get it up there. I pride myself in practice on this. Like, I'm not a three-point shooter. Then this happened!"

The Maroons appeared to have the game in control on a couple of occassions. In the third quarter when they built a nine-point lead before the Braves closed to within 35-31 early in the fourth quarter.

Menominee made another run, as the top Maroon, Emma Anderson, scored twice inside and Gladstone was knocked into a 45-33 hole.

Who knew that Menominee would not score another point the rest of the game?

"We didn't change a whole lot," Cretens said. "This is what we've been trying to do all year. We just cleaned it up. The attitudes and the effort and the energy changed. I just felt like we wanted it more. We went out there and we flew around, and we just never give up. That's the most important thing we talked about. Our girls were down and eaily could've given up, came in here, and said, well, here we go again."

Besides nailing the shot heard around Michigan girls basketball, Balenger's big contribution was the work she did defensievly on Anderson, especially after Anderson keyed that early fourth quarter Menominee run.

"We knew we had to frustrate Emma," Balenger said. "So, fronting her and having Megan (Crow) on the help side is the big part of that. I don't think she scored much this game. And we wanted to limit her and also the (Sarah) Barrette girl. She got in foul trouble so that really worked for our benefit."

Crow led the Braves with 16 points and Ahlgren added ten. Balenger scored nine, inlcuding the clutch buzzer-beating triple.

Anderson led Menominee with 11 points, including three baskets in the third quarter.

For a team that finished 7-13 in the regular season and lost to Menominee by scores of 50-30 and 66-37, this one, coming at playoff time, was super sweet.

"I told them that if they don't go out and have fun, they'll lose every time," Cretens said. "They had fun tonight, and that's why we won."

"It's just about that hard work, and perservering through," Balenger said. "We knew today, we had nothing to lose. We came here and were like, we're gonna play hard no matter what, and we outworked them today."

Gladstone will play at home Wednesday night against the Kingsford Flivvers. Tip-off is 7:00 ET and it will be broadcast on WCHT-AM (NewsTalk 600) and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box above to see photos taken by Brenda Crow, video of the game-winning shot taken by Scott Balenger, and hear radio interviews with Cretens and Andie Balenger.