Glads march into state finals

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St. Francis senior Sean Sheldon puts up a shot over Shelby's Lucas Landis (21) in Thursday's Class C state semifinal at the Breslin Center in East Lansing. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

March 23, 2012

Glads march into state finals

St. Francis seeks first championship after beating Shelby

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Fri Mar 23, 2012, 09:35 AM EDT

EAST LANSING — Devin Sheehy started it. Sean Sheldon and Michael Jenkins finished it.

On the big stage of Michigan State's Breslin Center, the three St. Francis seniors came up with big performances in Thursday's 63-54 win over Shelby in the Class C semifinal.

"Outstanding game today," Gladiators coach Keith Haske said. "Great pace. Both teams pushed the ball, which is what we wanted to do. It was a great battle between two pretty good teams who wanted to get after it."

St. Francis (25-2) moves on to play unbeaten and top-ranked Flint Beecher (27-0) in Saturday's Class C state title game.

"We (watched them) in the first half for a few minutes," Sheldon said. "They're a great team and you can see why they're undefeated."

Sheehy set the tone early in Thursday's win. The senior point guard tallied 12 points in the first quarter as the Gladiators took a 20-16 lead.

"The fast start helped us a lot," Haske said. "I think it took them out of their man-to-man and (they had to) sit in a zone, because I don't think they could contain Devin."

Sheehy tried not to get caught up playing at the Breslin Center.

"Coach told me not to look at the stands, because they're so high up," Sheehy said. "It's not like at home. So that's what I did. I played it like a basketball game and tried to stay focused."

"I've been down here several times and it always seems like you've got a kid or two that gets the big eyes and gets lost out there," Haske said. "I didn't see any of our kids that way. All of our kids we put on the floor were focused."

Sheldon and Jenkins were certainly focused in the fourth quarter. Sheldon had six points and seven rebounds in the final stanza, which started with the Gladiators only up 47-45.

"We did a couple of things to get him the ball around the basket," Haske said. "The other thing I thought he did was he got a couple of good ones on offensive rebounds, which is just making the effort to get there. We didn't make the shot, but we had a couple of put-backs which were just huge."

When the Tigers tried to key in on Sheldon, Jenkins broke free. With St. Francis up 53-48 with 3:30 to go, Jenkins scored seven of the team's final 10 points to seal the win.

"He's been coming off the bench and really stepping up for us," Sheldon said of Jenkins. "He's just sneaky around the basket. He'll get under the hoop and get a little reverse. It's big. He's stepped up in this tournament and we've really needed him."

While St. Francis jumped out to a 33-23 lead in the second quarter, Shelby wouldn't go away.

"Wouldn't expect them to go away down here in the semifinal," Haske said. "They have a great program. I asked coach before the game when the last time they had a losing season. He said 26 years ago. So that's a great program. They weren't going to go away."

The Tigers got back into it with seven 3-pointers, including five in the first half, and capitalized on 20 Gladiator turnovers.

"We did a great job of executing," Shelby coach Rick Zoulek said. "We converted on a few and you could feel the momentum coming back to us."

Sheehy finished the game with 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds. Sheldon had 16 points and 12 rebounds, Jenkins added 14 points and nine boards while Byron Bullough tallied 11 points.

For Shelby, David Beckman had 17 points while Jeremiah James had 12 points and 11 rebounds.

"It was very close," Zoulek said. "It makes you realize how close we were to the final game. It was only a few plays away."

Instead, it's St. Francis in the title game, playing for the first basketball title in school history.

Awaiting the Gladiators: Beecher and junior point guard Monte Morris, the two-time Class C Player of the Year.

"I'm really excited," Sheehy said of his match-up with Morris. "I went against (Boyne City's Keegan LaBlance), so I was really hyped up. And going against another good point guard, I'll be ready for it."