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ESCANABA---The Escanaba High School boys basketball team lost a key Great Northern Conference game to the rival Marquette Redmen Thursday night, 68-49, at the Escanaba High School Gym.

The Redmen avenged a 67-56 loss to the Eskymos on Jan. 2, and moved into a tie for second place in the GNC with Escanaba. Both teams are now 4-2 in conference play, while the Kingsford Flivvers are in first place with a 5-0 conference record.

Kyler Sager led the Redmen with 18 points, and he made four three-point shots.

“I think we played really good from the last time that we played them,” Sager said. “That was, by far, our worst game. But we practiced breaking their zone, and got it done. The shots were falling. I was guarding (Escanaba's Shane) Wallin. He's a very good player. He made some shots but I kind of locked him down in the second half.”

Indeed, he did. Wallin drained four triples in the first half to keep the Eskymos in the game. But Wallin did not score a point in the entire second half.

At the other end, Sager made three triples of his own and Easton Clements scored twice inside to help Marquette take a 35-25 lead into halftime. In the second half, without Wallin's triples, the Eskymos fell behind by as many as 20 points.

Escanaba fell to 9-5 on the season, playing its third game in a span of four days.

“A little bit of fatigue may have played in, but I'm not going to make excuses,” Escanaba Coach Scott Hanson said. “Marquette is a significantly-improved team since we saw them in early in January."

"Rich Ledy is doing a super job with them. He went with a big line-up, which I thought was a big switch for them. We struggled with their size and athleticism. Marquette has done a great job in the weight room, too, and I think that's an adjustment that our kids can make going into the future.”

Marquette improved its overall record to 11-6, and the Redmen have won nine of their last ten games after starting the season with a 2-5 record.

“Basically, we're just giving a lot more effort,” Sager said of the turnaround. “We've got to get ready for the downstate teams, for sure. Petoskey is No. 1 (seed in the district rankings) right now and we're No. 2. We're excited to possibly host.”

Besides Sager's 18 points, Marquette got 12 points from big man Jacob MacPhee.
 

Jaxson Jurmu chipped in ten points (seven of those from the free throw line). Clements ended up with eight points.

Escanaba got ten points from Casey Bray, besides Wallin's twelve first half points.

Marquette travels to Houghton next Tuesday night.

The Eskymos are off until next Thursday, when they have two very tough games: at first-place Kingsford, and then the following night at home against undefeated Painesdale-Jeffers.

“I gave the boys the weekend off, so they can enjoy the weekend, and watch the Super Bowl, and we'll come back on Monday,” Hanson said. “We'll have three good days of practice. We are up for the challenge, and we'll see what happens next week.”