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  • Traverse City St. Francis junior Liza Erickson shoots the ball over Kalkaska's Sophy Menestrina on Friday. Record-Eagle/Keith King

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February 4, 2012

Glads double up Blazers

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TRAVERSE CITY — By MIKE ECKERT

meckert@record-eagle.com

Bill Bayer's coaching resume didn't include a home win against Kalkaska.

That was until Friday.

St. Francis played physical defense to beat the Blazers 56-44 in a key Lake Michigan Conference showdown.

"To tell you the truth, this doesn't mean all that much," said Bayer, who is in his third year with the team. "We still have six conference games left and our conference is tough. We could have easily lost to Elk Rapids, East Jordan is good. We have to go up to Harbor Springs. But, I am happy for our kids. This is the first time in 3 years that we've beaten them on our floor."

The Gladiators (12-1, 8-0 LMC) picked up their second win of the week against Kalkaska. On Tuesday, they finished a 51-39 win against the Blazers in a game that was delayed late in the third quarter from December.

"Playing them Tuesday definitely helped prepare us, but our whole season has been preparing for this," St. Francis junior Liza Erickson said. "Our team has worked so hard. Last year, our team lost to them. This is what we've been preparing for. This was a great moment in our season."

Turnovers cost Kalkaska (10-3, 6-2 LMC) with 26 on the night.

"The better team tonight won," Blazers coach Dave Dalton said. "It was allowed to be a physical game and their defense just dominated us in the first half. We tried to turn the corner on our dribblers and use our skill and speed to our advantage, but they neutralized it by being physical and riding us out to the side too far. They play tough, physical basketball, and when the game is called that way, I think they're going to win most games."

St. Francis never trailed in the game. While the first quarter was close, the Gladiators closed out the second quarter on a 16-4 run to make it a 29-16 ballgame.

Kalkaska had five turnovers in the second quarter, and several led to points the other way for St. Francis.

"(The pressure defense caused problems) in the first half of the first game too," Bayer said. "That's really what we pride ourselves on. We probably spend 80 percent of our practice working on man-to-man defense. Now that we have some quickness, we've extended it to full court. The kids, I call them the Dobermans. They're really tough."

A 13-point halftime lead wasn't enough to make Bayer comfortable.

"We talked about coming out in the second half as if we were 10 down," Bayer said. "Because, between Kelli (Guy) and Sophy (Menestrina) and Jamie (Myas), they have three outstanding scorers. We were just fortunate that my kids were able to keep them somewhat at bay."

Erickson stepped up to start the third quarter with the first seven points for the Glads. She finished with a game-high 19 points and nine rebounds.

"She's unbelievable," Bayer said. "Not only is she scoring, but her decision making, she's matured so much that it's unbelievable. She's doing a much better job of drawing people to her and dishing. She's been leading us in assists, scoring, she really is an all-around player. She's going to make some college extremely happy, I would think."

While Erickson was scoring at one end in the third quarter, Myas was answering at the other end for the Blazers. She had eight of her 15 points in the period.

"Jamie Myas played unbelievable," Bayer said. "She was just outstanding. She surprised me, because she's been known as a set shooter. I thought off the bounce, she was fantastic. She was really giving us trouble. We couldn't guard her."

"Jamie can do that," Dalton said. "I'm so proud of her, because she hasn't always taken the basket. She's just been shooting threes. She had eight threes the game before, she had another game where she had 21 points and had seven threes. But she's got that pull-up jumper and she stepped up tonight. She made some great hustle plays in the first half that saved us."

Guy also scored 15 points with five assists for Kalkaska while Menestrina had eight points and seven rebounds. Myas also had four steals.

"We were exhausted," Dalton said. "Our starters always play a lot of minutes, but they played even more tonight. St. Francis makes you work on both ends. They make you play defense for a long time, until you just get tired of it, and then all of a sudden somebody slides underneath and they get an easy basket."

McKaely Ludka had 12 points and nine rebounds for St. Francis while Cassie Williams scored 11 and Lauren Buckel added eight points and seven boards.

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