Austin Hemmingson | Daily Press Gladstone’s Rane Castor blocks a shot by Escanaba’s Carter Hudson Feb. 28 in Gladstone.

GLADSTONE — Facing arguably the toughest schedule in the entire U.P., the Gladstone boys didn’t have much room for error this season.

Playing in both the Mid-Peninsula and Great Northern Conference is something only the Braves do, which means playing multiple games against top teams such as Iron Mountain, Negaunee, Marquette and Escanaba.

What do those four teams have in common? They all finished in the top four in the final Division 1-3 U.P. poll.

All season long, the young Braves showed flashes of excellence but struggled to play a full 32 minutes against the big boys.

But when arch-rival Escanaba showed up in town Feb. 28, that all changed.

After playing their most complete game of the season, senior guard Caden Alworden buried a triple and then completed a 4-point play to put the Braves up 70-67, and they hung on for a 73-67 win in a statement game that showed they had arrived.

“When I caught the ball, I just let it fly and it went in,” Alworden said. “That was a confidence boost for sure. We had been working so hard in practice for Esky. We keyed on some of their best players and kept the pressure on Carter (Hudson).”

Perhaps the most impressive thing was they trailed 67-63 with 1:42 remaining, then finished the game on a 10-0 run with a swarming full court press and timely shot making.

Cam Ballard and Rane Castor combined to hit 3 of 4 free throws to pull them within one before Alworden’s 4-point play. Ballard then iced the game with three free throws in the final 19.7 seconds as Esky simply struggled to make it across half court.

Castor led the Braves with 22 points. Ballard finished with 20 and Alworden had 11.

“Rane had a huge game,” Braves coach Dane Quigley said.

“He has played phenomenal the past couple weeks, but Caden had the play of the game. He held his composure on that shot and kept his focus on the line. We talked about how important it was to take care of the ball, and what a play by Caden, and what a great game on Senior Night. I’m so proud of these guys. This is what they worked for. We have to give a lot of credit to these guys.”

The Eskymos, who led for the majority of the night, didn’t help themselves out at the charity stripe, missing four free throws in the final minute.

“The biggest thing is we made some mistakes on the perimeter,” Esky coach Tracy Hudson said. “We also didn’t take care of the ball and hit our free throws. I thought Gladstone played a great game. They created turnovers.

“This is a hard one for us to swallow, but maybe this is a wake-up call before (Division 2) districts. We still had a nice regular season. We did pretty well in the conference. We talked about the people we had to stop and we didn’t stop them. We gave up the 3-point shots and those killed us.”

In a game that was mostly nip-and-tuck, the Eskymos grabbed a 30-24 lead with 40 seconds left until halftime on a corner triple by senior guard Peyton Fedell.

Junior guard Ryan Polley trimmed Gladstone’s deficit to 30-27 on a 20-foot jumper 18 seconds before halftime and Castor tied the score with a jumper from the left corner early in the third.

The remainder of the contest was close throughout, with neither team leading by more than five points.

“I thought our guys did a tremendous job defensively,” Quigley said. “Escanaba has a real good team. To hold them to 67 points is quite an accomplishment.”

Colin Hudson paced the Eskymos with 18 points. Fedell hit 15 and Brandon Frazer had 13. Big man Carter Hudson was limited to a season-low four in their regular season finale.

“They stayed within striking distance and Alworden had a great 4-point play,” said coach Hudson. “I would have liked to have seen us be a little more patient and go inside. We shot too many 3s. I thought they did a good job keeping Carter out of the paint. He didn’t have his typical game and that hurt us. You have to play for 32 minutes. Gladstone did that and we didn’t.”

Gladstone converted 21 of 25 free throws, while Esky finished 13 for 20. Esky held a 29-28 rebounding edge, hit 24 of 54 field goals and committed 17 turnovers. Gladstone was 22 of 51 from the field and had 16 miscues.

The Braves finished their season 10-11 after falling at top-ranked Iron Mountain the following week and then losing at Menominee in a district semifinal.

But as stated earlier, their record was deceiving based on the competition they played. This game was proof they were better than just an average team, and it left the group with the memory of topping Escanaba on Senior Night.

The Eskymos didn’t play again until knocking off Kingsford in a district semifinal. They were scheduled to visit Menominee for the district title before play was stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak. If the season were to end now, the Eskymos would finish with a 14-7 record.