St. Francis prevails

BY MARK URBAN
murban@record-eagle.com

January 11, 2009 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- A long day of basketball ended with a tired, but victorious Traverse City St. Francis boys basketball team.

Playing the last of five games against Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart on Saturday, the Gladiators handed the Irish their first loss of the season, 52-43.

"We played good defense and we made plays when we needed to make them," St. Francis coach Dave Ginsberg said. "But we looked a little tired."

That's understandable.

St. Francis (8-1) was playing for the fourth time in seven days and the ninth time in less than a month. Plus consider that nine players had one day off between after winning a state title in football.

If the Glads were tired, they didn't show it on the glass. St. Francis had as many offensive rebounds as Sacred Heart did in the game, winning the battle of the boards by 26.

Max Bullough led the way with 10 rebounds while Ian Sheldon added nine, five of which were offensive. Holden Greiner and Corey Williams each added five rebounds.

Those four also did all of the scoring for St. Francis. Greiner led the way with 17 points while Sheldon had 14, Williams 11 and Bullough 10.

Mike Lilly had 11 points for Sacred Heart (6-1) while Billy Myler and Thadd Levine had nine.

Myler ignited a late rally by scoring nine unanswered points as the Irish trimmed a 19-point deficit with 4:13 remaining to eight with two minutes left. But Sacred Heart could get no closer.

"We waited too long to pick our intensity up," Sacred Heart coach Keisha Brown said.

"It reminded me how we played at Charlevoix on Tuesday," Ginsberg said. "When you're undefeated, you don't give it up easy."

The two teams were tied 12-12 after one period. St. Francis went up 25-18 at halftime and 36-25 after three.

The varsity boys game ended a long day of basketball at St. Francis. The boys' freshman game began at 11 a.m. and the last game ended at around 7 p.m.

"It was one I'd do all over again," Brown said. "St. Francis is a well-coached team. They play real well together and I have the upmost respect for them.

"These are the games we want to play. That's why we scheduled them."

St. Francis won the boys JV and freshmen games.

Joe Kerridge had 13 points and Sean Sheldon 10 to lead St. Francis (7-1) to a 44-32 victory in the JV game. The Glads (6-2) won the freshman game 46-32 as Michael Weber had 15 points and Riley Bullough 12.

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