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Thursday May 2, 2024
MAKING PROGRESS: Braves Girls Battle Houghton

Click the thumbnails to see photos and video highlights, and click the AUDIO buttons to hear interviews with both teams' coaches.

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone High School girls basketball team hung tough for the second straight game, but could not make the big shots down the stretch and fell to the Houghton Gremlins, 47-40, Tuesday night in Gladstone.

The close loss followed a 51-48 loss to Marquette on Monday night.

So, even thopugh his team fell to 1-6 on the season, Gladstone Head Coach Andy Cretens was pleased with what he saw from the girls heading into the Christmas holiday.

"This is one of the better teams in the U.P. and we battled them," Cretens said. "We had them on the ropes. In the first half, they looked like they were tired and didn't want anything that we had. We have a lot to feel good about after today."

Longtime Houghton Coach Julie Filpus didn't dispute any of that.

"Gladstone gave us all we could handle, and everything that we wanted," said Filpus, in her 24th year as Gremlins head coach. "Our focus for our kids was just to step up defensively. Forty (points) is a little more than we wanted to give up. But they've got some skilled players. We're happy with our progress on that end."

Annika Peterson came out hot for Houghton in the first quarter, sinking three triples as the Gremlins took a 15-7 lead. Peterson led all scorers with 21 points.

Gladstone went on a 9-0 run to take a 16-15 lead in the second quarter, and the Gremlins had a slim 23-22 lead at halftime, with Peterson scoring 15 of those 23 points.

"You get hot for a reason," Filpus said of Peterson's shooting. "You get hot when you put time in. She spent 20 minutes after practice yesterday, and shot a lot of three's. That paid off for her tonight."

The Gremlins opened up leads of 32-22 and 38-28 in the third quarter as the Braves went through offensive dry spells similiar to the ones that happend in the third quarter against Marquette 48 hours earlier. The Redettes outscored the Braves, 20-8, Monday night in the third quarter, and the Gremlins had an 18-8 advantage over the Braves on Wednesday.

Just like in Monday's narrow loss, the Braves made a push in the fourth quarter.

Mayce Hanson and Lillie Johnson both knocked down triples, and Johnson scored twice in the paint, as the Braves closed to within 41-40 down the stretch.

But they could not get the big basket to take the lead, and Meghan Trewhella got a rebound off her own miss and scored to put the game away for the Gremlins.

Trewhella scored 15 points to go along with Peterson's 21 for Houghton (6-1).

Johnson led the Braves with 16 points, adding to her 27-point effort Monday night. Another freshman, Addy Blowers, chipped in eight points for Gladstone.

"Lillie is going to get her 15-t0-20-to-25 every game, and we need that from her," Cretens said. "It's awesome that she can do that as a freshman. She's growing every single game. But we need those next few girls. We need to have two other girls who are getting into double digits, and we need those next girls to get like seven or eight. We're starting to figure that out."

"We want to get our defense in a better spot," Filpus said. "We're heading in that direction. And then it's just a matter of getting our shooters and our offense just clicking a little bit better."

The Braves will be home again next Tuesday for a rivalry battle against the undefeated Escanaba Eskymos. It will be a varisty boys-girls doubleheader, with two freshman games and one JV game coming before that.

Games will start at noon next Tuesday, with the girls varsity gane scheduled for 5:15 and the boys varsity game scheduled for 7:00. Both varsity games will be broadcast live on FM-93.5, AM-600, and on-line at www.rrnsports.com.









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