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REGIONAL CHAMPIONS! Braves On To Elite Eight
 Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos, and to hear comments from Lillie Johnson and Coach Andy Cretens.
“If you look at our track record, that's what we took pride in the whole year,” Gladstone Coach Andy Cretens said of his defense, which gave up ten points in the first quarter but only single digits in the next three. “Obviously, we don't get this win without our defense. We couldn't shoot the ball in the first half, really, the entire game. We relied on our defense. We knew exactly what we wanted to do, and the girls did it well.”
 As for Johnson, the All-time leading scorer in Gladstone girls basketball history, she surpassed the 566 points she scored last year and now has 593 this season. Johnson has 1,573 points for her three-year Gladstone Braves career. She agreed that this championship win came mostly because of disciplined defense.
“My shooting started off slow for sure, but I tried not to let that take me down too much,” Johnson said. “My teammates kept it up, and our defense stopped them great, So, we didn't let it get to us too bad, and we came out after halftime and I hit the first three that gave us some energy for sure, and we just kept going from there.”
The game was the third playoff game in a row where the Braves had a travel disadvantage, having played on Negaunee and Sault Ste. Marie home courts, and now in Houghton Lake, which was 115 miles from Fremont (251 miles from Gladstone).
The state quarterfinal game between Gladstone and Frankenmuth is set to be played at Shepherd High School, which is 59 miles from Frankenmuth and 308 miles from Gladstone.
“It's an unfair advantage so far,” Cretens said. “I hope the MHSAA helps us a little bit here because we've been traveling all over the place. Maybe Petoskey, or someplace in the middle. It is what it is, and we'll keep doing what we're doing.”
Wherever the quarterfinal game is played next Tuesday, it will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.  |
