Flint Beecher rallies to top Traverse City St. Francis in D3 title game

Mar. 25—EAST LANSING — Deja vu from 11 years ago.

In the second meeting between Traverse City St. Francis and Flint Beecher with a basketball state title on the line, the Buccaneers emerged once again with a 14-point victory. The Bucs topped the Gladiators in Saturday's Division 3 boys basketball state championship game at the Breslin Student Events Center in East Lansing by a 64-50 final.

Both times the Buccaneers and Gladiators met in the state championship game, Flint emerged with a 14-point victory, the other in 2012 (74-60). This time marks Beecher's 10th state championship in program history and second for the Bucs' senior class.

"They kind of came out and punched us in the mouth," said Bucs second-year head coach Marquis Gray, a Beecher alumnus and former five-star recruit for Michigan State. "We kind of didn't respond right away. Take your hat off to them. They don't have anything to hang their head about, because that's a really good team that we just beat for a state title."

The only other Traverse City teams to make the boys basketball state finals came in the 1940s when Traverse City beat Detroit St. Theresa 26-23 in the 1940 championship and lost 34-32 in overtime to Marshall in 1944.

The last boys champ from northwest Lower Michigan was Northport in 1988, led by Sander Scott.

"We battled really well," Finnegan said. "We got down eight right away and just had to get our feet out of the sand and move defensively. And to get to see that first basket go in, which sometimes breaks the ice a little bit."

Robert Lee Jr.'s Twitter handle is @IFlavorRob. Now he's tasting victory again, winning his second state championship to cap off his prep career.

The Beecher senior guard scored a game-high 29 points, 13 of those in the third quarter as Beecher erased a 30-27 halftime deficit after a second quarter in which the Glads led by as many as seven points. He added 11 rebounds.

"It's just a good feeling," said Lee, who has college offers from Grand Valley, Wayne State and Northwood, among others. "Spring break is going to feel way better. Food's going to taste better."

The first four Beecher (24-4) buckets came in transition, including a Jaylen Townsend dunk, prompting a St. Francis (24-5) timeout while down 8-0.

The first quarter ended with a Joey Donahue steal and calling timeout from the floor with six seconds left. Nausadis hit a long-range 3-pointer from the Spartan logo to give St. Francis a 17-15 lead, its first of the game.

"I could go downhill and have a defender on me or I can take a shot that's open right now," Nausadis said. "Obviously, it's pretty far away, but I was going to take it and shoot it with confidence. And right from when I released it, I was like, 'Yeah, that's a swish.'"

Beecher took back control in the third period, capitalizing on several St. Francis turnovers to take a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter. Nausadis ended the quarter with a mid-range jumper over 6-foot-8 Wasir James.

The Bucs ended up forcing 16 turnovers and committing only seven.

Flint started doubling Hagelstein more in the second half after he had 11 points and three rebounds in the first half. He ended with 12 points, seven boards and two blocks.

Nausadis finished the game with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting and two assists. Following the postgame press conference, each of Flint Beecher's coaches and 14 players lined up to shake his hand on the way to the podium.

"That was a good team," Gray said. "That guard, he's a player and he made plays for his team. He played his heart out when you get to this point in the season when there's two teams left. The reason there's two teams left is because they are the two best teams."

Nausadis finishes his TCSF career with a 73-17 record and is the Gladiators' all-time leading scorer. He's headed to play at The Newman School in Boston before college.

"He's been unbelievable," Finnegan said. "Four years. Four of my six years at St. Francis. It's going to be really weird having a practice next year without number one in the building. I can't express enough what he's done for the program."

The Gladiators graduate their entire starting lineup, plus their top backup in Owen Somerville.

St. Francis and Beecher had one common opponent this season — Division 1 state champion Detroit Cass Tech. The Glads lost to the Technicians by seven, while Beecher fell by six.

"We just proved to ourselves that we belong, even though we already kind of knew that," Nausadis said. "The fact that we were able to prove that we could have a lead and go out there and play with them helped a ton."

Drew Breimayer finished with nine points, four boards, two assists and two blocks, while Donahue added seven points, eight boards and two assists, and Henry Reineck had two points, two boards, a steal and an assist.

Jaylen Townsend scored nine for the Bucs, while Kevin Tiggs added eight points and five rebounds and Keyonta Menifield had six assists, six steals and four points.

Beecher had advantages in points in the paint (40-24), points off turnovers (21-6), second-chance points (18-13), fast-break scoring (14-4) and scoring off the bench (9-0).