GAVIN GOES OFF: Saunders Leads Miners To Win

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ESCANABA---The Negaunee High School boys basketball team built a 20-point first quarter lead and Gavin Saunders scored 33 points, leading to a 74-58 win over the Escanaba Eskymos Monday night in Escanaba.

The Eskymos cut the Miner lead to single digits on two occassions, but could never get over the hump as Negaunee routinely beat them with their transition offense.

Escanaba Coach Scott Hanson tried everything to slow Saunders down, but not much worked, especially after the Miners took a 28-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. To their credit, the Eskymos rebounded wioth 15 straight points in the second quarter to close to within 28-23, but never could get any closer as Negaunee regained a 38-38 halftime lead.

"Physically, I thought they beat us up in the first quarter," Hanson said. "I think it took a while for us to adjust to that. Once we did. I think we played better. But Saunders is a pretty darn good player. He showed some really, really good moves out there. Just a really smart basketball player. Their whole team is. We just can't get behind 10, 15 points against a team like that."

"I'm just glad my teammates got me the ball," Saunders said. "I was feeling it tonight. Our motion plays, just moving the ball. We did a lot of screens and stuff that really worked for us. We came out really hot and I;m really thankful for that. All of our guys were scoring."

Negaunee Coach Brad Nelson, who went to the Iron Town after 15 years of ciaching te neighborhood rival Marquette Redmen, was worried about his team's physical play getting them into foul trouble. In the third quarter, three Miners had four fouls each.

"Foul trpuble was a big thing for us tonight," Nelson said. "I like the fact that they're fouling, because they're aggressive. But we've got to clean that up, obviously.It was tough. We were debating about going to a 2-3 zone, but when you've got Bray and Wallin out there shooting threes, that makes your decision hard. But when we did in the last teo three minutes, I think that slowed them down a little bit."

In te third quarter, with the Eskymos hanging around, trailing by between six and nine points, Saunders took over. One acrobatic basket in the lane moments before a three-pointer from the right wing. That extended Negaunee's ;ead back into double figures.

"Gavin is a streaky player, and he carried us in the third period," Nelson said. "I thoight Brody Bell came in and gave us some good minutes. We need balanced scoring. Luckily, we were able to get out of here with the win and Gavin had those 33."

Besides Saunders' 33 points, Ty Jacobson added 15 points, and Brody Bell chipped in 13 points. Mason Sager was into the offense as well, dishing out multiple assists.

For Escanaba, Shane Wallin led the way with 16 points, including a triple at the third quarter buzzer that brought the Eskymos to within eight points. Casey Bray added 14 points.

The Eskymos have no time to cry about this loss: they play at Marquette on Tuesday.

"You can't worry about it, you can't live in the past, and you've got to move on to the next one," Hanson said. "It's a physical thing, so we will probably have to play a few more guys tomorrow. For high school kids to play back-to-back, it's tough. Marquette's pretty darn good. We're gonna have to bring it on the road tomorrow, so no rest fof the weary."