Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear post-game comments from Javon Stevenson, Nick Garcia, and Coach Tom Gereau.

GLADSTONE---The latest battle between the Escanaba Eskymos and Gladstone Braves went down to the wire again Friday night.

In a game where points were at a premium, the Eskymos pulled out a 38-36 win over the Braves as Eskymo Coach Tom Gereau returned to the school where he coached last year...and where his son, Owen, currently plays.

With 14 seconds left to play, the Braves trailed, 36-34, with a chance to take the lead. The Eskymos, though, pressured Lonnie Davey, and he turned the ball over. Javon Stevenson was fouled and made both free throws to put the game away. The Braves' Aaron Hughes scored a basket at the end that was too little, too late.

“This is the greatest feeling you can have in a sport,” Stevenson said. “Coming into Gladstone, beating Gladstone on their home court. I know it was chippy and it was loud. It was a great game both ways. We walked out of there with the 'W' that we deserved.”

“This means everything,” fellow Eskymo senior Nick Garcia said. “It's our biggest rival. We're separated by a 15-minute drive. I've known these guys since I was a little kid, at the start of the second grade. It means a lot, my senior year, to get a win at their place.”

And what about that defensive change, and the big play at the end?

“The first half, I put the blame on myself,” Stevenson said. “I was taking a lot of bad shots and I was having a lot of turnovers. But we slowed it down, dropped out of a 4-on-1 into a five man, we were more patient with the ball, swinging it, getting more looks. I told them (with 14 seconds left) that we were going to win this game. We were going to go out there, get one stop, and I knew we were going to win the game.”

Gladstone had a narrow lead for much of the game, but the tide turned for Escanaba early in the fourth quarter when the Eskymos made back-to-back long jumpers, with Garcia's being a triple.

“It was a really gritty game,” said Garcia, who got popped in the nose and needed some help from the trainer in the second quarter. “There was a lot of smack talk out there. It was, who wants it more? It was us. This is a big win.”

As for Gereau coaching against Gladstone, and against his son?

“It wasn't about me coaching against my son,” Gereau said. “It's part of the game. I'm just the coach. It's the players that make the difference. He (Owen) understands what's going on. We had a lot of discussions before I took the (coaching) position. We knew this was coming up. I was more nervous than any of these kids.”

Escanaba, which also beat Bark River-Harris Thursday night, improved to 6-3 on the season. It was the second time this season that the Eskymos won both ends of a back-to-back situation.

Gladstone fell to 1-4 on the season.