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Braves top Gwinn, snap six-game skid

Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Gladstone’s Ahna Larson drives against Gwinn’s Eliina Miilu during Thursday’s game at Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — There was a feeling of joy, happiness and relief in the Gladstone Braves gym Thursday night. Stuck in the midst of a six-game losing streak and down three key players, the Gladstone girls basketball team put together its best performance of the season in a convincing 43-27 win over Gwinn.

Despite their struggles, the Braves have been a good defensive team all season. This game was no exception, as they held the Modeltowners to just 16 points in the final three quarters of the Mid-Peninsula Conference contest without their best defender — Andie Balenger — who was downstate for a school function.

“It’s unbelievable what our girls did tonight. The energy they played with and the defense they played was unreal with the short that bench that we had,” Braves coach Andy Cretens said. “Maddie Ahlgren did an unbelievable job on (Marissa) Delmont. Delmont is one of the better players in the U.P., and she had her frustrated. She was a thorn in her side the entire game. Maddie played every single second of the game except for maybe a minute … and didn’t slow down. She was huge for us tonight.”

Ahlgren held Delmont to 10 points — Gwinn’s only scorer in double figures.

The Modeltowners (12-6, 6-4 M-PC) were playing their third game in four days after falling just short against second-ranked Westwood and taking down fifth-ranked Negaunee earlier this week.

“Shots weren’t falling. We’ve been shooting 48% from inside the 3-point arc this year, and it wasn’t anywhere near 50% tonight,” Gwinn coach Ben Olsen said. “You don’t want to make excuses, but three games in four nights is tough.”

The Braves (6-12, 5-6 M-PC) got contributions from everyone offensively. With Taelor and Torie Zeise out once again, four players scored eight or more points to pick up the slack. Alaina Trudeau led the way with 10 points and two steals, while Ahlgren added nine points and five rebounds. Megan Crow chipped in eight points and seven boards, while Ahna Larson also had eight points.

“Our goal was to get it inside,” Cretens said. “If they double, kick it out. If they don’t double, Megan goes to work. Megan took a step forward tonight in that area. She made good reads. She knew when to put the ball on the floor, when to make a move, when to kick it out, where to kick it out to… That was big for us. We had some big buckets in big moments because we made smart decisions — that’s where we’ve been lacking all season. We kind of took a big step forward on that today.”

Cretens also noted Lilly Griebel stepped up and made some big plays, calling her and Larson “X-factors.” He also mentioned Trudeau stepped up on the defensive end.

The Braves trailed 11-10 after the first quarter, but went ahead to stay just 50 seconds into the second when Trudeau buried a triple from the right corner. They led 19-15 at halftime, then started then the second half on a 10-4 run. Gwinn scored the next five points to pull within 29-24 with 45 seconds left in the third quarter, but Gladstone finished the game on a 14-3 run.

“They were supposed to be one of the top teams (in the U.P.) coming into this year, and obviously some injuries and sicknesses kind of derailed them, but when you got a 6-3 girl (Crow) in the middle, on any given night they can probably beat anybody in the U.P.,” Olsen said. “Defensively, they’re up in your face. We were a little bit slow tonight and it was just a recipe for disaster.”

Each team committed 10 turnovers.

Gladstone, which won the JV contest 40-33, visits Kingsford Tuesday. Gwinn visits Iron Mountain Tuesday.

Gwinn 11 4 9 3 — 27

Gladstone 10 9 12 12 — 43

Gwinn — Delmont 10, Curtice 3, Taylor 5, Pleaugh 5, Ruokolainen 4. FT: 8-12; F: 15; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Delmont 2, Curtice 1.

Gladstone — Ahlgren 9, Crow 8, Griebel 5, LaFave 3, Trudeau 10, Larson 8. FT: 11-17; F: 16; Fouled out: None. 3-point field goals: Trudeau 1, Ahlgren 1.

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