ESCANABA — It took a few tries, but Escanaba girls’ basketball knocked off Kingsford when it mattered most.

After dropping both regular season meetings to the Flivvers, the Eskymos earned a 56-34 district quarterfinal win  over their Great Northern Conference foe on Monday.

“They wanted this win,” Esky coach Tracy Hudson said. “We wanted to get back to playing Escanaba girls’ basketball. I thought they did that.”

Not everything started all sunshine and rainbows for the orange and black. In fact, the Flivvers came out firing on all cylinders to claim a 13-4 lead.

If the Eskymos wanted to keep their season alive they had to find a way to settle down and create some type of offensive flow.

“We pulled together when we had to,” Hudson said. “It’s danger zone when you get to that 14, 15 point differential. Teams can take off and you can never catch them.”

The Eskymos ultimately calmed down, closing the first quarter on an 8-0 run to cut Kingsford’s

lead to 13-12 entering the second frame.

It didn’t stop there.

The Eskymos stayed hot, claiming the second quarter’s first 16 points to open a dominating 28-13 lead with under a minute to go in the first half.

A 3-pointer from freshman Aubree Moore and a free throw from junior Cassie Olson served as the Flivvers lone second quarter points as the Eskymos led 30-17 at the half.

Hudson was quick to credit the 24-0 run, which featured 14 of senior Grayson LaMarche’s game-high 22 points, to the team’s senior leadership, specifically from the backcourt duo of Katey Lamb and Clara Braun.

“They settled us down,” Hudson said. “It may not show up on the state sheet, but I feel like we pulled together when we had to.”

The Eskymos kept rolling in the third quarter, outscoring the Flivvers 18-8 to seal the win.

LaMarche added nine rebounds, three assists and a steal while finishing 10-of-14 from the floor.

All of this occurred despite missing last week’s action due to illness. She re-joined the team during practice on Sunday.

“I’ve said it all year: she’s a money player,” Hudson said of LaMarche. “When the chips are down she’s ready to play. She gave us everything she had tonight.”

The loss ends the Flivvers season with a final record of 10-12.

“I think a lot of coaches default to this, but (we had) 11 wonderful kids come in every day and give us their best,” Flivvers coach Chris Moore said. “We had a lot of inexperience. With my wife and I’s health situation the coaching was very inconsistent. But I think we got some wonderful life lessons and friendships out of it.”

Now the Eskymos turn their attention to Wednesday’s district semifinal game against Negaunee, who not only beat Esky 69-28 in both team’s season openers, but finished the regular season at 21-0.

But this isn’t a game in December. It’s March, where regular season records are as useful as sunscreen in a blizzard.

Anything can happen.

“It’ll take a herculean effort,” Hudson said. “We’re going to be in our home gym. We’re going to give it everything we have. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Box score

Escanaba 12 18 18 8 –58

Kingsford 13 4 6 11 –34

Escanaba –VanDamme 3, Engebretson 4, LaMarche 22, Braun 3, Lamb 3, N. Beauchamp 8, B. Beauchamp 3, Bray 10; FT: 7-13; Fouls: 11; 3-point baskets: VanDamme 1, Braun 1, B. Beauchamp 1

Kingsford — Przeslakowski 3, Kriegl 2, Moore 3, Kowalski 10, Sundquist 4, Bortolini 4, Olson 5, Normand 3; FT: 5-10; Fouls: 9; 3-point baskets: Przeslakowski 1, Moore 1, Bortolini 1