Justin St. Ours | Daily Press Escanaba’s Trevor Brown (center) shoots a layup over Menominee’s Brody Waara (1) as teammate Nathan Howes (12) and Menominee’s Aidan Bellisle (21) looks on Tuesday in Escanaba.

ESCANABA — Victory was within Escanaba’s reach, but the Menominee boys had different ideas here Tuesday night.

The top-ranked Maroons scored 10 unanswered points late in this Great Northern Conference basketball match-up to rally past second-ranked Esky 65-62.

Esky led 59-55 with less than 2 1/2 minutes remaining in the contest before senior Cooper Conway sank a pair of free throws to bring Menominee within two points.

A layup by senior Brady Schultz tied the score with 1:55 left, and a layup and free throw by senior point guard Aidan Bellisle put Menominee ahead to stay.

Conway added a pair of gifters, and senior Brody Waara split a pair for an insurmountable 65-59 advantage.

“We have an experienced group,” said Menominee coach Sam Larsen. “These guys have been through the battles a lot which I think prepares them for moments like this. The biggest thing is we got stops down the stretch.”

Conway tied the score at 46 by splitting two free throws with 6:35 remaining in the game.

A jumper from the lane and free throw by senior forward Colin Hudson gave the Eskymos a 49-46 lead at 6:24.

Esky bumped its lead to 57-50 on a jumper from the left corner by senior forward Jared Hanson with 4:09 left.

The Maroons (12-1) scored the next five points, shaving their deficit to 57-55 on a jumper from top of the key at 3:21.

Esky (6-4) made it 59-55 on senior center Trevor Brown’s jumper from the boulevard with 2:56 left to play, setting the stage for Menominee’s game-winning rally.

“I thought we played good for 3 1/2 quarters,” said Esky coach Tracy Hudson. “Both teams had opportunities to win it. They ran a couple backdoor plays, and we didn’t execute defensively and made a few mistakes in the end. We wanted to stop their run and jump, and I thought we did a pretty good job with that. We played a lot more man-to-man this time (than in a 77-44 loss at Menominee Jan. 7), and having Trevor Brown back really helped.”

Esky took its biggest lead at 43-31 on a layup by Colin Hudson with 3:05 left in the third stanza.

Menominee, however, outscored the Eskymos 12-3 during the remainder of the third and climbed within 46-43 on a gifter by Bellisle.

“During a time-out, we challenged our players to get some stops, and in the fourth quarter, we dug in our heels and got the job done,” said Larsen. “I think our (full-court) pressure tends to wear on people. We knew we probably weren’t going to get as many threes as in the first game. We had to be prepared to attack the rim and did that well.”

The Eskymos led 24-16 following a pair of gifters by Colin Hudson midway through the second, but the Maroons climbed within 32-30 on a layup by sophomore Trevor Theuerkauf a second before halftime.

Hudson scored 17 points. Hanson added 15, and Brown had 12 for the Eskymos, who hit 23-of-43 field goals and committed 14 turnovers.

“We shot the ball pretty well but had a rough last four minutes,” said coach Hudson. “We controlled most of the game, then we ran out of gas a little. We wanted to be the aggressor and were more aggressive this time. I thought our kids were in it to win it. I couldn’t be prouder of their effort. It looked like the number one and two teams playing out there. I thought we had good balance and shared the ball well. We had 16 assists tonight.”

Bellisle hit 22 points, and Conway had 16 for the Maroons, who had nine turnovers.

“This is a tough conference,” said Larsen. “There’s a lot of good players in our league. You have to come ready to play every night.”

Esky, which won the JV game 70-28, hosts third-ranked Kingsford Friday. Menominee travels to Marquette Friday.

Menominee 11 19 13 22 — 65

Escanaba 15 17 14 16 — 62

Menominee — Waara 9, Badker 9, Theuerkauf 4, Bellisle 22, Schultz 5, Conway 16. FT: 14-23; F: 16; Fouled out: None; 3-point field goals: Waara, Bellisle, Conway.

Escanaba — Smale 7, Bray 7, Howes 3, Hudson 17, Hanson 15, T. Brown 12, Willette 1. FT: 10-14; F: 20; Fouled out: Smale; 3-point field goals: Hanson 3, Smale, Howes, Hudson.