01/28/15 Escanaba, Michigan – The Negaunee Miner Girls Basketball team was down in Escanaba, Michigan tonight to face the Escanaba Eskymos. Carl Leander Johnson, the voice of the Negaunee Miners and Jesse Anderson were there to bring you all the exciting hoop action on Sunny.FM.
Escanaba won the tip and scored a bucket on their first possession. Adena Anderson immediately answered back with a three pointer to give the Miners the 3-2 lead. Escanaba’s Michelle LaFave immediately showed why she was headed to Michigan Tech next year for basketball as she took advantage of the smaller Miners lineup, causing havoc down low. Despite Adena Anderson sinking another bucket, scoring the Miners’ first five points of the quarter, the Eskimos used their height to build a ten point lead, 19-9, after the first quarter.
The Eskymos height was a problem throughout. With three players 5’11” or above, the Miners were having a difficult time grabbing rebounds. They trailed by as much as 19 at one point in the second quarter, but managed to use a Courtney Clickner three-pointer and a couple Hailee Richards’ put-backs to end the half on an 8-2 run to cut the lead to 13 (31-18) going into the break.
In his post game interview, Coach Brandon Sager was impressed with how his team continued to battle back, despite trailing by double-digits for much of the game. It showed in the third quarter as the Miners became more aggressive and hit some key shots. Aleda Johnson, who had a rough start, began letting shots fly. She managed to hit double digits in the game, and along with Courtney Clickner knocking down two more threes, the Miners were able to cut the lead down to nine! Michelle LaFave and Kalli Heller weren’t going to let the Miners come back, as they both knocked down some key buckets to push the Eskymo lead back to 14.
The Miners started the fourth quarter with another Clickner three-pointer to cut the lead to 12 with seven minutes remaining. Clickner would lead the way for the Miners on the night, scoring 14 points, including three three-pointers. Aleda Johnson would have a decent second half, but struggled from the line down the stretch and the Miners couldn’t overcome the rough first quarter, and ended up losing the game by the ten points they trailed after one, 61-51. and trailed 49-37. Escanaba’s LaFave would finish with 19 points and 15 rebounds, while Keller & Connor would finish with double digits in the process.
The Escanaba Eskymos defeated the Negaunee Miners (61-51) on Sunny.FM.
Join Jess Anderson tonight as he will be in Negaunee to watch the Boys Basketball host the Houghton Gremlins. The Honor Credit Union Pre-game Show will start around 7:00pm, and the game will follow at 7:30pm on Sunny.FM.
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