KINGSFORD — Kingsford scored a late go-ahead bucket off a turnover to stun Escanaba 60-58 in a Great Northern Conference game on Friday.

Escanaba grabbed a 58-56 lead off a Kingsford turnover with 20 seconds to go. Out of a timeout with 11 seconds to go, Luke Terrian was fouled on a drive to the basket. He made both free throws with seven seconds to go. Tyler Beauchamp intercepted the inbounds pass in the key and put up a shot that bounced on the rim and fell in for the lead with three seconds left.

A halfcourt shot by Craig Kamin hit the back board and nicked the front of the rim at the buzzer.

“It’s funny, you play this game for 48 minutes and all of a sudden it comes down to the last three seconds,” Kingsford head coach Dan Olkkonen said. “I was real happy with the way we came out and challenged in the first quarter and able to put up 19 points. We were really worried about scoring with their size. The gameplan was to kind of go straight at them and I think we did that.”

The Flivvers (7-6) faced adversity from the tall Escanaba lineup. The Eskymos poured 22 points in the second quarter, including an 11-2 run that put them up by 11 at one point.

But the Flivvers hung around, battling inside for rebounds and attacking the rim to draw fouls or look for an outlet.

Terrian led the Flivvers with 26 points while Beauchamp added 22.

Austin Willette led Escanaba with 16 points and Jared Nash added 14.

For Escanaba, it was another late lead and another opportunity lost.

“We were in a position late in the game, up two, I felt pretty good,” Escanaba head coach Tracy Hudson said. “Terrian drove, we fouled him, which I was OK with not to give him a layup. He hit both free throws. We got kind of confused on our press break. We kind of panicked, threw the ball away, they got a steal and that was the game.

“We need to have strong senior leadership,” Hudson added. “We need to be able to take care of the ball in critical times and we need to execute defensively and offensively. I thought this was going to be exactly the game it was. I felt pretty good about being up 58-56. We just didn’t want to give up a 3 and we didn’t. We gave up a drive and we fouled. We’ll take the chances.”

Kingsford cut into Escanaba’s 11-point lead in the second quarter, making it a four-point game at hafltime, 36-32.

Beauchamp hit a 3-pointer with 1:11 in the third quarter to tie the game at 47-all. Terrian hit a trey a minute into the fourth to tie the game at 50. The Flivvers added another score and Nate Rutter followed with a triple for a 55-50 lead with six minutes left.

Escanaba kept digging and took a 56-55 lead with three minutes remaining.

The game remained tied 56-all until after a Kingsford timeout with 32 seconds left, when a steal by Tyler McDonald led to a putback score by Willette with 20 seconds. The Flivvers took the ball to halfcourt and called a timeout, setting up the tying free throws by Terrian.

“I was just impressed the most with the poise on offense. I thought we shared the ball a lot,” Olkkonen said. “We had great assists with Luke Terrian cutting to the basket and the inside-out to Tyler hitting a 3-pointer. I thought Nate did a real good job of leadership tonight on the floor knocking down a few points for us. That 3-pointer in the fourth quarter was big.”

Escanaba had no timeouts when Kingsford made the late go-ahead bucket.

“We would’ve talked about it a little more. Not having a timeout didn’t help,” Hudson said. “We were using timeouts to try to get back into the game. But we got the lead with our last timeout. We switched defenses. I think Coach Olkkonen set up a set play. We ran a 1-3-1, kind of confused them, got the deflection. We kind of panicked at the end. We had two guys looking at each other, one went one way and we just gave them a layup. We’re a better basketball team than that.”

Kingsford JV won 48-46 and the Flivvers freshmen won 78-73 in triple-overtime.

“It’s a feel-good time for our program, especially when you get to that February grind,” Olkkonen said. “We have four games in seven days. This is a great start to a great week for us.”

Kingsford hosts Marquette in a makeup game Monday, while Escanaba visits Menominee.

Escanaba 14 22 13 9 — 58

Kingsford 19 13 15 13 — 60

Escanaba — Willette 16, Nash 14, Kamin 11, Hudson 7, Willis 6, LaMarche 2, McDonald 2. FT: 5-8. F: 20 (Hudson fouled out). 3PT: Kamin 1, Hudson 1.

Kingsford — Terrian 26, Beauchamp 22, Galeazzi 5, Mann 4, Rutter 3. FT: 12-23. F: 10. FG: 19-37. 3PT: 6-12 (Beauchamp 3, Terrian 2, Rutter 1).