Miners Grind Past Braves As Teacher Beats Student

GLADSTONE---Points were hard to come by Monday night as the Negaunee Miners slipped past the Gladstone Braves, 35-22, in a boys basketball non-conference game in Gladstone.

It was a game that matched up Negaunee Coach Dan Waterman with Gladstone's new head coach Colin Immel. Immel played for Waterman when Waterman was the head coach at Munising High School back in 2015. It was emotional for both men Monday night.

"I have nothing but love and respect for Colin and his parents and his wife," Waterman said. "He was my point guard down at Munising and gave every ounce that he had as a player. I'm happy for the win, but at the same time, I know he's hurting, I know the feeling in that other locker room."

"You never want to see someone you care about go through that. Colin and I are close. We communicate all the time in the off-season. It's something I guess we'll both have to get used to because he's not going anywhere and I sure hope I'm not."

The 25-year-old Immel, who coached the JV Bark River-Harris team and played football at Finlandia University before coming to Gladstone, said the feeling is mutual.

"I knew this day was going to come, but I can't describe the feeling," Immel said. "It's a good feeling though. Times have changed and hopefully, one day, I can follow in his footsteps. We talk all the time, him, along with his assistant Chris Prunik."

"We obviously had this game marked on both of our schedules, before the season even started. I wish it could be a little more entertaining, and we could've made it a little bit closer. It'll be a tighter game when we play them next time."

As for the game itself, neither team shot the ball very well on offense, with Negaunee leading 7-4 after the first quarter and 20-7 at halftime. It wasn't pretty in the thrid quarter, either, with only nine total points between the two teams in those eight minutes.

Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Braves were able to put together a mini-run on triples by Kaden Gibbs and Elliot Vitito to close to within 29-20 with four minutes left. But Gerald Johnson knocked down a triple of his own to essentially put the game out of reach.

"In the first half, we weren't aggressive enough," Immel said. "Going into the second half with only seven points? In the second half, we were a little bit more aggressive, so we ended up scoring the ball a little bit. Their defense is obviously good. They're a disciplined team."

Waterman agreed.

"I thought it was a great defensive effort by our guys," he said. "And I thought we were really good on offense, all except for the shooting part. We had good look after good look, but we just couldn't get anything to go down from the perimeter."

Negaunee was led by Johnson's 11 points, while Gibbs led the Braves with eight points.