Birch Run varsity boys played hard in a defensive battle through four tough quarters before losing 46 to 38 to host Essexville Garber Friday night. The Panthers played tremendous defense only to come up a little short on offense. Birch Run took the 1st quarter 16-9, 2nd quarter went to Garber who out-scored Birch Run 11 to 3 for a 20-19 one point advantage going into the half. By the end of the 3rd quarter Garber led 27 to 25.

The game was hard fought and with just 17 seconds remaining Garber held a 42-38 edge before we had to start fouling to stop the clock.Garber went 8 for 9 on their free throws in the 4th quarter and 12-15 for the night.Though we didn't get the win, I am really proud of the effort the Panthers put forth; they left it all on the court! Jaxon Martinus was high scorer for the Panthers with 14 points, followed by Gage Martinus and Christian Stebner with 7 points each. Gage also led the team with 9 rebounds and 3 steals while Keegan Hale had a team-high 3 assists, and Trent Dalak had 3 deflections. The Panthers will host Hemlock on Tuesday Dec 19th @ 7:00PM.

Jaxon Martinus- 14 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast, 2 stl

Gage Martinus- 7 pts, 9 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk

Christian Stebner- 7 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast, 1 stl

Connor Mausolf- 5 pts, 1 stl, 2 defl

Keegan Hale- 3 pts, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 defl

Trent Dalak- 2 pts, 1 reb, 3 defl

Alex Chase- 2 reb, 2 stl

Garett Martinus- 1 reb, 1 stl

Michael Jenrow- 1 reb, 1 stl