Gladstone Beats Rapid River In First Girls Meeting

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone Braves and Rapid River Rockets met for the first time Thursday night in a varsity girls basketball game.

If this game had happened ten, fifteen years ago, Rapid River would have likely won the game as the Boyer, Hall, and Marshall girls dominated for the Rockets back then.

But here in 2015, the Rockets program is rebuilding and the Braves are one of the top teams in the U.P. Gladstone had nine different players score and its defense forced numerous turnovers as the Braves beat Rapid River, 61-12, at the Gladstone High School Gym.

The Rockets made just two field goals all night long, both of them by Megan Evans.

For Gladstone, Alexis St. Cyr led the way with 17 points, including five three-pointers.

She nailed two long three's to give her team a 6-0 lead early in the game. Later, St. Cyr hit three more treys in the third quarter as the Braves outscored the Rockets, 26-2.

Gladstone led, 15-3, after the first quarter, and 27-7 at halftime. The big run in the third quarter put the game away, and the rest of the contest was played on the running clock.

Gladstone Coach Karl Dollhopf moved sophomores Alyssa Polley and Paige Loehr to the varsity team for the game, and they both played a lot of minutes. Loehr scored four points and Polley had several good looks, but she failed to score.

Braves junior Sam Sailor had a great first half, scoring six points, getting three steals, two assists, and two rebounds.

Gladstone's Ashley Edwardsen scored eight points, while Caityln Leisner and Leigha Woelffer each scored seven points.

Evans led the Rockets with seven points. While Rapid River made just two baskets all night, the Rockets were good at the free throw line, making seven of eleven shots.

Rapid River returns to action next Thursday night against Carney-Nadeau, the team the Rockets beat earlier this month to break a 48-game losing streak.

Gladstone will host next Negaunee Tuesday night. That game will be broadcast on WCHT-AM (600), and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.

Click the thumbnails in the ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS box to see photos and videos from the game, taken by Nate Bellville and Mike Dagenais.