The Marquette Redmen battled the Escanaba Eskymos in a claustrophobic Great Northern Conference (GNC) game to determine who would take the title outright. The game remained tight throughout, but the Redmen never gave up their early lead.
Ty Lotterman struck first with a double for the Redmen in the opening period. Kam Karp followed up with a triple to round out an early 5-0 run for Marquette to get things started.
Karp landed another triple to make it 10-3, but Colin Hudson of Escanaba responded with his own three-pointer to quench a little scoring drought for the Eskymos. Marquette stayed out front with a score of 10-6. The Eskymos hacked away at their deficit, however, to get within one point of the Redmen just before the buzzer.
The Redmen hosted a tough Escanaba Eskymos team for the GNC title decider.The Eskymos began the second quarter with possession, but the Redmen were the first to strike. Kam Karp put up two triples in a row to improve the Redmen lead to 18-11 in the early going. The Eskymos would not go away though as a couple triples for Escanaba again put them within one point of Marquette.
John Thomson put away a three-pointer to help the Redmen get out to 25-20 over the Eskymos. Drew Wyble later put up a double to maintain that five-point lead for Marquette. Karp, having himself a night in the first quarter, followed up with another two to put the Redmen lead at 31-24.
The Eskymos came back with the help of Peyton Fedell to tie it up just before the half. Karp put up a double in response to give the Redmen the lead, the score 33-31, going into halftime.
The third quarter saw the Redmen pull away slightly, Lincoln Sager helping Marquette get out to an 11-point 44-33 lead with four minutes left in the period. The Eskymos never quite let the Redmen get comfortable, however, as their deficit shrunk to four points. The score settled at 50-46 going into the fourth quarter.
The Eskymos were able to cut their deficit to just three points in the early going of the fourth quarter. John Thomson hit another triple in response to help the Redmen get back out to a six-point lead.
A Karp layup, he had an incredible 27 points for the game, gave Marquette an eight-point lead late in the quarter. A couple of Thomson free-throws made it a 10-point lead with less than 90 seconds to go.
The give and go play did not stop until the final buzzer. Colin Hudson put up a triple in the waning moments of the game, the Eskymos battling until the bitter end. The Redmen took home their 4th-straight GNC title with this hard-fought victory.
The Redmen will take on Green Bay East this Saturday, February 15th on Fox Sports Marquette 105.1-99.9. Tune in at 2:30 pm for the pregame show, tip off is at 3:00 pm.
Listen to a recording of the live broadcast.
