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Braves marooned by slower tempo

EagleHerald/Stephen Oman Gladstone's Reece Castor drives to the basket in the first half of the Braves' game in Menominee Friday.

By Stephen Oman

soman@eagleherald.com

MENOMINEE — The Menominee boys’ basketball team slowed the pace and made its free throws down the stretch in a 63-61 win over Gladstone Friday.

The Maroons (3-6) were methodical on offense, working long possessions to get good looks offensively.

“I liked the tempo we played at tonight,” Menominee coach Pete Pericolosi said. “A lot of patience, and we have to play like that.”

That approach kept the Braves from playing with the fast pace they prefer.

“We never really got into what we wanted to do,” Gladstone coach Clayton Castor said. “We wanted to get up and down the floor and turn them over.

“Got to give a lot of credit to (Marcus) McKenney. He did a great job managing the game for Pericolosi. We tried to keep the ball away from him, but he’s just so dang quick.”

Hunter Hass had a huge game with 28 points for the Maroons.

“It’s nice to see him have a breakout game like that. He had it going,” Pericolosi said. “What I like about it is that he was driving and getting into the paint, too. At the end when they put him on the line, he’s our best free-throw shooter.”

Hass got Menominee going early with 11 first-quarter points, thanks in part to three 3-pointers.

The Maroons led 17-10 after one quarter, and 31-23 at the half.

“I thought we did OK the first half. Without a doubt they came out with an intensity, and we did struggle to match it a little bit,” Castor said. “The second half we stepped up our game.”

Gladstone came out and pressed early in the third quarter and quickly ate into the Menominee lead.

Rudy Peterson made two of his five 3s in the third to get Gladstone back in the game.

Peterson led the Braves with 17 points.

“Rudy Peterson is a great player,” Castor said. “Rudy has a tendency to get overlooked. He shouldn’t because he can give you eight-nine rebounds, and on offense the sky’s the limit for him.”

The Braves held a brief 38-37 lead in the third quarter, but Jon Anttila made a layup to give the the Maroons the lead back at 39-38 and Menominee never trailed again.

Anttila hit a big 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter to answer a shot made by Peterson.

“Jon had a big 3 when we were up one. That was a huge shot,” Pericolosi said. “You have to remember, Jon didn’t play last year, so this is all new territory for him. He’s handling it quite well, he’s doing a good job.”

Menominee held a 45-41 lead going into the fourth quarter, and the Maroons really slowed the pace with a small lead and just more than three minutes to play.

The teams combined for only one foul in the third quarter, so the Braves had to start fouling with about two minutes left when Menominee showed no signs of trying to take a shot.

Menominee made 13-of-15 free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the lead.

Hass made two free throws with three seconds left to give Menominee a 63-58 lead. Gladstone’s Brad Spindler drained a 3 as time expired, but it didn’t affect the outcome.

Reece Castor, who was averaging about 26 points per game coming in, was held to 12, thanks mostly to the defense of McKenney.

“Oh he was great. Kept him in front all night,” Pericolosi said of McKenney. “That’s huge because he’s a slasher. He can shoot too, but he likes to get in the paint. You can’t say what a huge part of the game that was to keep him in front.”

Coach Castor was happy that his team came back from a tough first half to win the second half.

“I was proud of my kids for coming out and responding. This is the most adversity they’ve faced this year,” Castor said. “I thought they did a good job of coming out swinging in the second half. We’ve just got to play all four quarters for 32 minutes. Tonight we didn’t do that.”

Pericolosi said he thinks this game could help turn the Maroons around.

“This hopefully is a good turning point for us and we can play some good basketball from now on,” he said.

Tanner Mathias, Levi Kempka and Anttila scored nine points each for Menominee.

Gladstone won the junior varsity game 65-36.

Carson Shea led the Braves with 24 points. Keagan Monroe had 12 for the Maroons, and Hunter Goldschmidt added 5.

Gladstone   10   13   18    20   —   61

Menominee   17   14   14   18   —   63

Gladstone — Peterson 17, Castor 12, Gibbs 8, Spindler 13, Schwalbach 5, Stephenson 3, Hanson 3; FT: 3-5

Menominee — Mathias 9, Hass 28, Kempka 9, McKenney 8, Anttila 9; FT: 17-23.

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