The Gladstone Braves took the lead early in the first quarter, at first by a narrow one-point margin, then by seven points at 10-3.
Marquette gained their footing quickly, however, and a Liam Darr triple completed a 7-0 scoring run to tie the game at 10-10.
The Braves stayed out in front at the buzzer with another narrow one-point lead at 12-11.
Marquette’s offensive efforts started firing on all cylinders early in the second quarter.
A couple of Ethan Martysz triples plus a few from Luke Ogea helped put the Redmen at 35-20 with just under two minutes to go.
Marquette maintained that cushy lead at 35-22 going into the half.
Marius Grazulis sunk an early triple to open the third quarter. Later, Martysz made his 4th three-pointer of the night to build on the Redmen lead with a score of 45-27.
Yet another Liam Darr triple improved Marquette to 48-28. The Redmen seemed to be taking two-steps at a time towards the GNC title, theirs outright with the win tonight.
The Redmen began the final quarter with a 15-point lead at 50-35.
The Braves were able to slash their deficit to 10 points, however, for a score of 50-40. Marquette shot back out to 56-40, and really it was all over from there.
The 66-44 victory tonight makes the Redmen the Great Northern Conference Champions for the 2018-2019 basketball season. Marquette has gone 6-0 in conference play and 12-3 overall.
Ethan Martysz was the Redmen’s leading scorer with 16 points (including 4 triples). Marius Grazulis and Luke Ogea had 13 points each. Bryce Brazeau had 12 points, Liam Darr had 6, Raffy Millado had 4, and John Thomson had 2.
The Redmen will be at Escanaba on Thursday, February 7th on 103 FXD, the Big Game of the Week. Tune in at 7:00 pm for the pregame show, tip off is at 7:30 pm.
Listen to a recording of the live broadcast.
