HOUGHTON — There was never more than an eight-point difference in Thursday night’s game between the Houghton Gremlins and Gladstone Braves’ girls. While the Braves took a brief lead here and there, the Gremlins’ five maintained their composure, and eventually won, 55-52, at the Houghton Gym.

“Overall I liked how our kids battled,” Gremlins coach Julie Filpus said. “We need to learn how to win more with skill and confidence, rather than just battling out a win and some of that occurred tonight.”

The Gremlins (4-1) jumped out to an 11-4 lead after the first eight minutes. However, the Braves

seemingly woke up in the second and had their best quarter. They tied the game at 17 with 2:30 on the clock, and took a brief 21-19 lead a minute later, only to have it dashed away by a triple off the hands of Houghton’s Ellie Hainault. She led the scoring with 14 points and got some major kudos from her coach.

“Ellie did a fantastic job for us in getting shots and working the floor,” Filpus said.

Clea Ollenketo followed with 13 points. This included some timely threes that also put the Gremlins on top and moved the momentum.

Despite out shooting the Gremlins 21-15 in the second, the Braves (3-2) still trailed by one at 26-25 as the teams broke for halftime.

“The second was our best,” Braves coach Andy Cretens said. “So, I told them, ‘Keep that up, especially the energy.'”

His squad heeded the call, taking another brief lead at 34-32 in the third. This time however, it was Ollenketo who pumped in a three and put the Gremlins back up by one at 35-34.

Except for a tie at 52 and less than 90 seconds on the clock, the Gremlins kept that lead till the end for the 55-52 victory.

For the Braves, Lillie Johnson led the scoring with 20 points and Eve Pankanien sank 11.

Both coaches were pleased with the way their girls played. The consensus was that It was a good ending to the opening month of the 2023-24 season.

“I told the girls that they played good basketball and lost,” Cretens said. “That is not always going to be the case. We had good energy, and I liked the way we played as a team with girls stepping up and playing their roles.”

Filpus felt much the same way for the Gremlins.

“There was a stretch in the fourth quarter where we had really nice ball movement, and that was good to see,” she said. “Yes, we are 4-1, but we can always get better.”