12/18/14 Marquette, Michigan – The Negaunee Miners Boys Basketball team traveled to Marquette, Michigan tonight to face their non-conference rival in the Marquette Redmen. Carl Leander Johnson, the voice of the Negaunee Miners and Jesse Anderson were there to bring you all the exciting action on Sunny.FM.
Marquette was the first to put points on the scoreboard tonight with a three-point shot from Connor Brazeau to take a 3-0 lead. The Miners were able to answer with a beautiful two-pointer from Jay Lori to spark the Miners offense. Through the first few minutes, the Miners had trouble covering Marquette senior center Vejas Grazulis, who is 6’10”. Not to be outdone, Jay Lori matched Grazulis, backing him down and finishing with a left handed hook-shot to give the Miners their first lead of the night, 7-6. The Miners then got a bit lackadaisical defensively and gave up six straight points to the Redmen. Negaunee would never fall too far back of the Redmen in the first though, as Dre Tuominen his a buzzer beating three-pointer to bring the Miners back within two, 12-10.
Negaunee continued to struggle to contain Grazulis down low, and he was able to get to the line a few times throughout the game. Negaunee managed to manufacture points when they needed to, however, and made it a one point ballgame on a three-point shot by Jay Lori, to trail 16-15 against the Redmen. Both teams would sink one more bucket each before the buzzer for halftime sounded, as the Redmen went into the break leading 18-17.
20 seconds into the third quarter Grazulis sank a quick two buckets to widen the Redmen lead to five, 22-17. The theme of the night was that Negaunee refused to die, though. They were able to sink a three-pointer to answer with a three-pointer, one of many on the night, to make it a one-possession game once again. Unfortunately, for the “battle back” theme to work, the Redmen had to build a lead first, and they did that often, pushing their lead to a game-high eight points during the third quarter, 28-20. Negaunee would find their shooting stroke though and lock down defensively, getting a couple big shots from Dylan Tasson and Dre Tuominen, en route to cutting the Redmen lead in half by the time the third quarter ended with the score of 33-29.
The Miners would be the first to put points on the board in the fourth quarter with another huge three-point shot, to make it a one point game once again! These two rivals would trade blow after blow the rest of the way. If Negaunee scored, Marquette would answer. If Marquette hit a free-throw, Negaunee would knock down two. Halfway through the fourth frame, the Miners trailed by two points, 37-35. With both teams in the bonus, it was anybody’s game. Junior guard Ben Luke, who had yet to score a point this season, managed to get to the line and sink two pivotal free throws to give the Miners a 38-37 lead over the Marquette, Negaunee’s first of the half. It was free-throws the rest of the way for both teams, and after Dyalan Tasson picked up his fourth and fifth fouls to end his night, the Redmen were able to pound it down low and get Grazulis to the free-throw line to put the Redmen back up one. Negaunee, naturally, would answer with a two-pointer from Dre Tuominen to take the 40-39 lead with just over a minute left to play. An unfortunate set of foul calls against the Miners led to the Redmen knocking in three more free-throws to take a 42-40 lead with just 11.3 seconds left. The Miners got the ball where they wanted to, but some good defense from the Redmen led to a missed shot at the buzzer to give the Redmen a 42-40 victory over their non-conference rival.
The Marquette Redmen defeated the Negaunee Miners (42-40) on Sunny.FM.
The Miners were led tonight by Jay Lori who had himself another great game, putting in 13 points and a myriad of rebounds. Dre Tuominen, the second part of the Miners dynamic duo, finished with another twelve points. Both Jay & Dre have hit double digits in all of the Negaunee’s game this season. Rob Loy had a season-high eight points, including two huge three pointers that kept the Miners in the ballgame. Dylan Tasson added in five of his own, despite fouling out late in the game, and Ben Luke rounded out the Miners offense with two clutch free-throws down the stretch.
For the Redmen, they used three players only to score: Vejas Grazulis with 25, Brett Beauchamp chipped in nine (including the game winning free-throws), and Connor Brazeau knocked down a pair of threes and a couple free throws to finish off Marquette’s scoring attack with eight.
Join Carl Leander Johnson, the voice of the Negaunee Miners and Jesse Anderson Friday December 19th, 2014, as the Negaunee Miners Girls Basketball team host the Norway Knights. The Honer Credit Union pregame will start around 7:00pm and the game will follow at 7:30pm, on Sunny.FM.
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