Esky holds off Maroons
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MENOMINEE -- The Menominee boys basketball team played one of its better games of the season on Wednesday against Escanaba, but the Eskymos' second half defensive pressure gave the Maroons fits as Esky improved to 4-2 overall in the Great Northern Conference.
Aidan Bellisle hit a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer to go into the break trailing 34-31 and the Maroons took the lead early in the third quarter on back-to-back baskets from sophomore Keaton Uecke and junior Dante Sartorelli. The Eskymos answered by utilizing its size and length on both ends, forcing Menominee into some turnovers defensively in its 1-3-1 half court trap and grabbing offensive rebounds on missed shots that led to buckets. After senior Garrett LaMarche hit the second Esky 3-pointer of the quarter, the Eskymos had a 44-37 lead.
"One thing we like to look at with our length is our deflections and steals. We want those two numbers to equal 20 and tonight together it equaled 26," Esky coach Tracy Hudson said. "I thought our 1-3-1 caused a couple of (Menominee's) players to not feel comfortable and I think that was a big key."
Menominee junior Keagan Monroe stopped the run with a steal and fastbreak layup, but Escanaba forced Menominee into two straight turnovers that led to layups from Peyton Fedell. Esky sophomore Carter Hudson tripled to put Escanaba up 52-44 heading into the fourth.
The Maroons opened the game up by forcing Esky into three early turnovers, leading to baskets in transition and being active on the boards to get out to an early 8-0 lead. Escanaba trimmed the deficit to 8-7, but Monroe knocked down two jump shots and Sartorelli converted a fastbreak layup to push the lead to 14-7.
"I thought we got off to a good start, we had good defensive intensity, were able to execute and get some good post doubles to force (Escanaba) to have to kick it out and a take a less percentage shot," Menominee coach Sam Larson said.
"Offensively, we got some easy ones in transition. It was nice to see Brock, Aidan and Dante really running the floor to get a couple easy shots to get out to our 8-0 lead. We played with a lot of fire and you could feel it."
Escanaba senior Jared Nash answered by scoring his second basket of the quarter and LaMarche knocked down a corner 3-pointer to go into the second quarter trailing 16-12.
Just over a minute into the second quarter, Monroe was assessed his second personal foul and then a technical foul after, leaving him with three fouls for the game.
"When Keagan got his third foul in the second quarter, our offense got a lot more tentative and so we started to turn the ball over and Esky got some easy ones and were able to take a lead," Larson said.
Menominee's lead grew to 23-17 on a pull-up 3-pointer from Bellisle, but two straight three's from Hudson tied things up at 23 with 5:00 to play in the half.
Esky led 34-28 at the half.
"I thought the last couple minutes of the (second) quarter I thought we really dug down and battled back to cut it down to three going into halftime," Larson said. "Aidan hit that three and that gave us a little bit of a spark going into half and I thought we played well in the third quarter, we just weren't able to knock the lead down any."
Escanaba outrebounded Menominee 29-24, with Nash leading the way with 11. He added 21 points and shot 11-18 from the free throw line. The Eskymos' other big man, senior Austin Willette, finished with six rebounds and nine points. Hudson and Craig Kamin added 11 points each with Hudson knocking down three 3-pointers.
"Menominee did a nice job of mixing defenses on us, but I thought we did a nice job of getting the ball down to Jared and Austin when we had to," Hudson said. "When we can go inside and kick it back outside and make the shots, we're a much better team. We had the inside-outside attack tonight and we're happy to come away with a 10-point win."
Menominee (3-12 overall, 0-6 GNC) hosts Gladstone on Friday, while Escanaba hosts Houghton on Friday.
Escanaba 12 22 18 16 -- 68
Menominee 16 15 13 14 -- 58
Escanaba -- Nash 21, Kamin 11, Hudson 11, Willette 9, Fedell 9, LaMarche 7.
Menominee -- Bellisle 20, Uecke 12, Monroe 9, Sartorelli 8, Barrette 7, Spegel 2.