Braves Get Much-Needed Win Over Model Towners

Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos. Also click the AUDIO buttoms to hear post-game comments from Eli Berthaume and Coach Colin Immel. Also click to hear the radio replay of the game.

GLADSTONE---The Gladstone High School basketball team dumped to a 27-4 lead and cruised to a 62-40 ein over the Gwinn Model Towners Tuesday night in Gladstone. It was a much-needed win for the Braves, after suffering a lopsided loss to Kingsford in their last game.

"A really great start, and when we subbed, it was awesome to see that we never skipped a beat," Gladstone Coach Colin Immel said. "That was really great to see everybody chip in and play their role. I think that getting Eli (Berthaume) back, that really helped as well. It added another guy deeper, so that's good."

Berthaume missed the second half of the football season with an ankle injury, and also missed the first six weeks of the basketball season with that same nagging injury. He scored eight points and had seven steals in his return to the basketball court.

"It felt amazing to be back, finally," Berthaume said. "I had the energy today. It felt really good to be back on the court and being with my team, especially. That's Number One. It felt really good to go after the balls, and shoot around again. First time in a few months. I was pretty aggressive (defensively) that game and I want to keep it up going forward."

Gladstone improved to 5-5 on the season. Kaden Gibbs scored 12 points, Drake Johnson added ten points, and Elliot Vitito nailed three triples to score nine points. Nine different Braves players reached the scorebook in the victory.

"This was important," Immel said, coming on the heels of the embarrassing loss to Kingsford. "I was nervous. Who was gonna be the guy to step up to get us going in the right direction? And, honestly, it was everybody. Everybody stepped up and did their role. Everybody provided a spark as a team. We played really well to start it off and we jumped on them early."

The rough season continued for the Model Towners as they fell to 0-10 as we near the halfway point. They've lost all of their games by 15 or more points so far this season, and they lost to the Braves for the second time after a 41-26 loss in Gwinn eleven days ago.

A bright spot for Gwinn was Logan Soyring, who scored 21 points in a losing effort. Josh Harnick added ten points for the Model Towners.

Gladstone is off for the rest of this week. The Braves will have two home games next week: on Tuesday agaisnt Ishpeming, and next Friday against Menominee. That Braves vs Menominee game will be broadcast on FM-93.5 and AM-600 with Mike Pankow at the mic.