Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Gladstone’s Marnnea LaFave reaches out to knock away a pass intended for Marquette’s Sofia van den Ende during Tuesday’s game at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — Missed opportunities, missed free throws and some late clutch plays by Marquette robbed the Gladstone girls of an upset against the fourth-ranked Redettes Tuesday night.

As has been the case for most of the season, the Braves played well on defense and had multiple chances to put this one in the win column, but in the end it was Marquette making the crucial plays to walk out of the Braves’ gym with a 47-44 overtime victory for its ninth straight win after starting the season 0-2.

“They (Braves) played their butts off,” Redettes coach Ben Smith said. “They deserved to win just as much, if not more than we did, but we were able to make enough plays down the stretch.”

Playing without center Megan Crow for the second staight game, the Braves hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter to lead 17-12 at the end of the quarter and 21-16 at halftime of this Great Northern Conference matchup.

“Our girls did a ton of good things tonight,” Braves coach Andy Cretens said. “We got off to a great start. Our girls are really used to playing with Megan Crow… It’s kind of hard to adjust when you’re used to playing with somebody like that and an inside-out type of game, but our girls adjusted extremely well and we made it really tough for them to guard us.”

It appeared Gladstone (4-6, 1-3 GNC) might start to pull away after Andie Balenger knocked down back-to-back jumpers to start the second half to give the Braves a 26-16 advantage, but the Redettes (9-2, 4-1) hung around and trailed just 32-28 after the third quarter.

Neither team scored in the fourth until Marnnea LaFave hit a free throw to give the Braves a 33-28 lead at the 4:51 mark. After Gladstone stretched its lead to 35-30 after a pair of free throws by Maddie Ahlgren with 2:43 remaining, the Redettes went on a 6-0 run to gain their first lead with 1:28 left.

The Braves then ran off over a minute of clock on their next possession before Ahlgren tripled from the right corner on a shot that went around the rim and back in with 18 ticks left, putting the Braves up 38-36.

Gladstone, however, fouled Marquette’s Maria Millado on the ensuing possession and she made the Braves pay by sinking both free throws with 9.4 seconds left to knot the score 38-38. The Braves had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but a 3-point try by Balenger fell short at the buzzer.

Gladstone, which shot 9 for 18 at the free throw line for the game, shot just 3 for 7 in the quarter with a chance to put the game away.

“We’re one shot, one missed free throw, one turnover, one stop away…,” Cretens said. “We’re potentially an 8-2 team, and people are making comments about what’s going on with the girls. I said, ‘Nothing, we’re playing really good basketball. We’re just one play away from being the No. 2 team in the U.P.”

With the game tied 43-43 in overtime, Aspen Michelin drove the lane and knocked down a short set shot from right in front of the rim to give the Redettes the lead with 45 ticks remaining. Ahlgren had a chance to tie it at the charity stripe but missed the second free throw to leave Gladstone trailing by one.

After Marquette was called for a 10-second violation, the Braves had a chance for the lead with 7.6 seconds left.

LaFave received the inbounds pass and tried to throw a backdoor pass to Ahlgren, but Michelin intercepted it and then sank both free throws with 2.8 on the clock. The Braves had one last chance out of a timeout, but a half-court heave by Ahlgren was wide left as time expired.

“(It feels) good to kind of gut it out at the end, but you gotta do things better all the way through,” Smith said. “If things go right all the time, it’s really hard to fight through adversity when it happens. We had some possessions tonight where we couldn’t do the simplest of things, and then we had a few other plays where it’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a great play.’ That’s been our M.O. this year. We have some athletic kids who finish some things they never should, and then they have other situations where all they have to do is look at the bucket and make a layup and they end up throwing it to someone else.”

Ahlgren led the Braves with 14 points, four rebounds and two steals. Balenger added eight points, four rebounds and two steals, while LaFave chipped in seven points, five boards and three steals.

Michelin led Marquette with 10 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals. Sofia van den Ende chipped in 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Maddie Carter was limited to seven points but had eight boards.

The Redettes had 18 turnovers and shot 18 for 44 from the field. Gladstone had 16 miscues.

Marquette, which won the JV game 45-21, hosts Sault Ste. Marie Monday. The Braves host Menominee next Tuesday.

Marquette 12 4 12 10 9 — 47

Gladstone 17 4 11 6 6 — 44

Marquette — Ketzenberger 4, Millado 9, Puskala 4, Michelin 10, Carter 7, Kelly 3, van den Ende 10. FT: 11-17; F: 16; Fouled out: None.

Gladstone — Torie Zeise 3, Balenger 8, Ahlgren 14, Taelor Zeise 3, LaFave 7, Trudeau 9. FT: 9-18; F: 15; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Trudeau 3, LaFave 1, Ahlgren 1, Balenger 1.