Glads clinch Lake Mich. crown

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Traverse City St. Francis' Devin Sheehy (11) drives past Elk Rapids' Luke Morrison (3) in the first quarter of Tuesday's game. Record-Eagle/Jan-Michael Stump

February 22, 2012

SF was third in league last year

By MIKE ECKERT meckert@record-eagle.com The Record Eagle Wed Feb 22, 2012, 07:26 AM EST

ELK RAPIDS — Outright Lake Michigan Conference champs.

Traverse City St. Francis clinched the honor on Tuesday with a 56-42 win at Elk Rapids.

"It feels good," Gladiators coach Keith Haske said. "We were hoping to do it when we went to Grayling, but they knocked us off. So this is a nice win for us in a tough place to play. They're a good defensive team, so it was another tough, physical battle with them."

Charlevoix won the league title a year ago.

"It feels good," said Sean Sheldon, a three-year starter for the Glads. "We definitely didn't have our best offensive game, but our defense stepped up, which was our key to the win. I know I struggled offensively, but we had other kids step up, which is really good."

St. Francis (15-2, 12-1 LMC) closed the first quarter with baskets from Michael Jenkins and Devin Sheehy for a 13-9 lead, which it never gave up. But, Elk Rapids (12-5, 9-4 LMC) never went away, as the lead never grew to more than 14 points.

"We didn't shoot the ball extremely well, but some of that was our shot selection," Elk Rapids Luke Johnson said. "We were out of character for some reason. We weren't patient on offense, kids forced shots. We weren't hitting open guys. But that happens. You have those kind of games."

The Elks cut the lead to 50-42 off Spencer Impellizzeri's free throws with 2:39 to go. Johnson called a time-out, but it was all St. Francis the rest of the way as the Gladiators closed out the game on a 6-0 run.

"They called a time-out and coach told us to keep going over our defense," Sheehy said. "Our defense picked up. We got a couple of turnovers and started scoring."

"It was the same thing that happened to us at their place," Johnson said. "I told our kids, 'Contain penetration, contain penetration. Sheehy's going to try to go to the rim.' He did exactly that, got in and got a lay-up. And before you know it, it goes from eight to 10, then we turned the ball over and it went from 10 to 14."

The Elks lost senior Luke Morrison to an ankle injury in the second quarter. He returned in the third, but didn't see a lot of minutes and only scored two points.

"Without Luke out there, they're obviously a different team," Haske said. "When it came to crunch time, they're used to Luke handling it. So without him, that was hard on them. Obviously, we kept pressuring and pressuring and hopefully you get a little bit of a run. We got a couple of quick ones and that made a difference in the game."

"That hurts, but I thought we had some other kids that stepped up and played fairly well," Johnson said. "That's good. Hopefully that'll help us in the long run. Not only next year, but as the season goes on. We're going to need those kids to step up and make plays for us."

One of those players was Philip Hayes, who scored 14 of his game-high 16 points after Morrison's injury.

Morrison's two points came in the third quarter off a pair of free throws. He was driving for a lay-up, but Sheldon caught up to him and wrapped him up for a foul.

"I wasn't going to let him get it, but I tried to catch him on the way down. I didn't want him to fall down," Sheldon said. "Luke's probably my closest friend in the league, so it's always fun to play them. We know it'll be a competitive game. I'm anxious to see what he'll do next year at the college level, because I know he'll be going somewhere."

Sheehy finished with 15 points for St. Francis while Sheldon had 12 points and nine rebounds. He was part of a 39-17 advantage for the Gladiators on the boards.

"We had to have everyone crash," Sheldon said. "We knew it was going to be really physical and we kind of struggled with that at the beginning of the game. But we were getting loose balls and started to get better."

Another big contributor on the rebounds was Jenkins, who had nine boards to go with his five points.

"He's been playing so great," Haske said. "He's probably a starter, but he just comes off the bench and gives us a lift, so I hate to stop that."

St. Francis closes out the Lake Michigan schedule on Friday at home with Charlevoix, while Elk Rapids travels to Harbor Springs.

In the JV game, Elk Rapids won 50-38.