MENOMINEE — A strong opening quarter for the Menominee girls basketball team allowed the Maroons to take a 14-2 lead, and they coasted the rest of the way to a 46-34 Great Northern Conference victory over Escanaba on Tuesday.

“Can’t say enough about intensity we came out with tonight,” Menominee coach Lucas Chouinard said. “Our main focus was to not let (Nicole) Kamin, (Carney) Salo and (Mari) Bink get into the lane where they were very successful last game, and I thought we did a good job of walling that off and forcing a lot of contested shots in the first quarter. (We) took advantage of it on the offensive end.”

Menominee scored the first seven points of the game on a long two-pointer from Emma Anderson, a layup in transition from Jenna Nolde and a corner triple from Anderson before Kamin got Esky on the board with a transition layup.

Anderson then knocked down another 3-pointer. and Erin Barrette closed the quarter with a layup and an offensive rebound for a basket over a two-minute span.

The Maroons took their biggest lead of the half late in the second quarter when Josie Hofer knocked down a pull-up jumper. Nolde canned a triple from the corner to go up 25-8 and matched it moments later when Kennedy Olson scored in the post, but Esky ended the half with a 3-pointer from Bink to head into halftime with a 27-13 deficit.

“We had some girls that had to quarantine recently, so the girls were a little out of sorts trying to find themselves. (It) was a little bit of a dysfunctional week,” Esky coach Mike Beveridge said. “We didn’t have a great start, but that being said, Menominee is a very good team that plays very good defense and takes care of the ball offensively.”

To start the second half, Menominee grabbed a 19-point lead as Nolde scored five of the first seven Maroon-points with a 3-pointer from the wing, but a basket from Bink and four points from Kamin cut the Maroons’ lead to 35-21 as Menominee called time with 2:04 left in the third.

After the small Eskymos run, the Maroons went inside to Anderson on two straight possessions, and she responded with baskets off post moves to bump the lead back up to 17 until Salo ended the quarter with a triple for Esky.

Esky outscored Menominee 10-8 in the fourth quarter and got the lead down to single digits (40-32) on a bucket from Bink, but the Maroons ended the game on a 6-2 run with all points coming from Anderson down in the post as she finished with 20 for the game.

The final basket came with over two minutes remaining in the game, and Menominee was able to stall the clock out to seal the win.

Nolde had one of her better nights scoring of the season for Menominee as she was behind Anderson with 12.

“Jenna has struggled in previous games shooting from the outside, so it was nice to see her have some success tonight,” Chouinard said. “She’s always good driving to the basket and hitting those floaters, so it was just nice to see her have a good game tonight.”

Menominee (4-0 overall, 3-0 GNC) travels to Marquette Friday.

ESCANABA (34) — Kamin 16, Bink 7, Salo 4, Monkevich 3, Barron 2, Lancour 2. FTs: 4-8.

MENOMINEE (46) — Anderson 20, Nolde 12, Wellner 6, Barrette 4, Hofer 2, Olson 2. FTs: 0-0.