St. Francis falls in D3 basketball title game
Mar. 25—EAST LANSING — Traverse City St. Francis had Flint Beecher on the ropes, but the Buccaneers rallied with a second-half haymaker of its own to win a state championship.
Beecher (24-4) topped Traverse City St. Francis, 64-50, in the Division 3 title bout at the Breslin Center in East Lansing on Saturday.
"They made a couple of runs, which they're going to do," St. Francis head coach Sean Finnegan said. "We just struggled to finish a little bit a few times and gave up a few easy looks that were a little uncharacteristic. But I can't say enough about how proud I am of the boys and the fact that we're here and had the opportunity we had and how we battled the way we did today."
St. Francis guard Wyatt Nausadis scored 20 points for the Gladiators, making the school's second appearance in the boys basketball state finals. The other came in 2012 when the Glads also lost to Flint Beecher by 14.
Nausadis drilled a 3-pointer from the Spartan logo to end the first quarter with and give St. Francis a 17-15 lead, the Gladiators' first of the game. Flint started with an 8-0 lead, all on transition buckets, but the Gladiator defense stepped up after that and limited fastbreak opportunities.
Josh Hagelsein added 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks for the Gladiators (24-5), who graduate their entire starting five plus top bench player Owen Somerville. Drew Breimayer scored nine points, and Joey Donahue tallied seven.
Senior guard Robert Lee Jr. led Beecher with 29 points and 11 rebounds as the Bucs won the program's 10th state championship in 14 appearances.
Find full coverage of Saturday's championship game between St. Francis and Flint Beecher in the sports section.
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