Brian Bell | Marinette EagleHerald Gladstone’s Cam Ballard splits the double team attempt by Brock Barrette (20) and Aidan Bellisle of Menominee during Friday’s GNC matchup in Menominee.

MENOMINEE — Ever since a tough week two weeks ago that saw the Menominee boys basketball team drop a 66-44 Great Northern Conference game to Escanaba and then another GNC loss to Marquette a few days later, the Menominee boys basketball team has looked like a new squad.

The Maroons (5-7 overall, 2-2 GNC) have stepped up their production on both ends of the floor and that resulted in their best offensive game of the season Friday in an 82-68 GNC triumph over Gladstone.

“Ever since the Marquette game we’ve had a greater edge about us in practice and in games. We’ve come out the last few games with really good intensity and I’m proud of our guys for that,” Menominee coach Sam Larson said. “It’s been nice to have that validated on the scoreboard and pick up a couple wins.”

The game bounced back-and-forth to start the first quarter with three lead changes in the first three minutes until a basket from Menominee’s Dante Sartorelli tied the game at eight at the four minute mark.

After a short break in the action, Gladstone’s Cam Ballard sank his second 3-pointer of the quarter to take an 11-8 advantage. Menominee answered with a basket inside from Keaton Uecke, followed by Sartorelli diving into the wall to save the ball from going out of bounds right into the hands of Uecke, and he cleaned it up for a basket and an old-fashioned three-point play as Menominee took a 14-11 lead and wouldn’t give it back the rest of the game.

Menominee turned those two baskets from Uecke into a 10-0 run as Aidan Bellisle knocked down his first attempt at a 3-pointer and Caden Bigger scored off a slip-screen on the baseline to put Menominee up 18-11 and force Gladstone to take a timeout with 1:10 left in the quarter.

Ryan Polley hit a 3-pointer to break up the run but Keagan Monroe cleaned up his own miss for a basket and then stepped in front of a pass for an easy fast break dunk. A basket from the Braves made it 22-16 just before the end of the quarter, but Bellisle calmly walked into his second 3-pointer of the quarter right at the buzzer to give Menominee a 25-16 lead after the first.

Both teams traded baskets again to start the second and with Menominee holding a 33-21 lead, Ballard drained a deep 3-pointer from the wing and followed it up with a pull up jumper off a drive on the next possession to cut the lead to single-digits at 33-26. On the other end, Menominee got a much-needed bucket from Cooper Conway who drilled a triple of his own on his first shot since missing the last few games with mono to get the lead back to 10 (36-26).

Menominee played well on the defensive end in the first half despite Gladstone knocking down all seven on the 3-pointers in the first half the Maroons were still was able to head into the break with a 44-32 lead.

“In the first half I thought we were really good defensively even though (Gladstone) had seven 3’s,” Larson said. “We were giving them a couple of those but I thought we did a nice job of keeping the ball out of the paint with the exception of Cam Ballard. Once we switched Keagan onto Ballard I thought that made a difference for us with him making things difficult on him.”

Slowly but surely Gladstone started to chip away at the Maroons lead in the early going of the second half.

With the score 50-38 in favor of Menominee, the Maroons started to turn the ball over against the Braves pressure defense and Gladstone went on a 10-2 run capped by a tough take to the hoop from Noah Ballard to cut the deficit to 52-48. A triple from Brady Badker ended the run and gave Menominee some breathing room at 55-48 and Gladstone would get no closer than five the rest of the game.

“I think our half-court trap put some pressure on the ball handlers and that allowed us to force some turnovers and if (Menominee) did get it across we made it tough for them and that turned in to us getting out in transition and helped us get back into it,” Gladstone coach Dane Quigley said. “Transition is kind of our game, but we just didn’t have enough offensive output to fully get back in the game.”

Menominee ended the quarter on an 8-4 run highlighted by a fast break jam from Monroe to take a 63-54 lead into the fourth and matched their biggest lead of the game (14) with just under three minutes to play when Badker hit a 10-foot bank shot to make it 75-61.

“We still have some work to do on end of the game situations because we struggled in the third quarter a little bit, but it’s nice to finally be in those situations and be able to pull out of them. We just need to get better at managing the clock and turnovers,” Larson said. “I give our guys credit. They persevered, got enough stops to win and got it done. Scoring 82 points in a 32-minute basketball game is great and a testament to them sharing the ball.”

The Maroons shot lights out from the field, going 30-of-54 (55 percent) and 5-10 (50 percent) from 3-point range against Gladstone’s 24-58 (41 percent) clip from the field and 7-16 from deep.

Ballard led Gladstone with 23 points and Rane Castor added 16 and seven rebounds.

“We’re usually at our best when we get at least one more guy to step up and get around double figures, but other than that Rane and Cam have been most of our offensive output all season and we’ve come to expect that out of them,” Quigley said.

For Menominee, Uecke led the way with 19 points; Monroe turned in a nice all-around game with 15 points, 10 rebounds, six assits, three steals and three blocks; Bellisle had 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists; Badker had 12 points and two assists and Sartorelli added 10 points and six boards.

Menominee will look to keep its solid play going against Escanaba in another GNC matchup in Esky on Tuesday while Gladstone has some off time before its next game.

“It’ll be nice to see how we have progressed,” Larson said. “This next week will be a good test to see where we’re at. I think we’ve grown since the last time we played these guys, but now we have to take that negative and turn it into a positive and keep playing how we have been instead of regressing to what we started at.”

Gladstone — C. Ballard 23, Castor 16, N. Ballard 9, Alworden 6, Polley 6, Hughes 4, Hagebusch 3. FTs: 12-16.

Menominee — Uecke 19, Monroe 15, Bellisle 15, Badker 12, Sartorelli 10, Barrette 6, Bigger 2. FTs: 17-24.