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March 12, 2003Gaylord St. Mary tops Bellaire in regional nightcapByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - Lyndon Johnson was president. The Beatles were dominating the music charts. The New York Jets signed a brash quarterback from Alabama named Joe Namath. Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali. The year 1965 is significant in Leland today. It is, according to Comets coach Jason Stowe, the last time Leland played for - and won - a boys regional basketball championship. On Friday night, the Comets will have a chance to end that near 40-year drought when they take on Gaylord St. Mary for the Class D regional title at Petoskey. "This is exciting," Comets senior guard Ben Schlueter said. "We were in the regional last year, but lost in the semifinals to a very tough Mio team. "This year we think we have a chance." Leland (19-3) advanced to the championship game with a 66-56 win over Hale on Tuesday night. St. Mary (20-3) moved on with a surprisingly easy 62-40 triumph over Ski Valley Conference rival Bellaire. The Snowbirds and Bellaire had split a pair of double overtime games during the regular season. St. Mary won a regional last season en route to a semifinal appearance at Michigan State's Breslin Center. Leland, meanwhile, was scrambling to find out the last time it was in the regional finals. "We think it was 1965 when the team went to the semifinals," Stowe said. "Leland went to the regionals in 1979, but I believe lost that first game." The Comets did not appear again in the regionals until last March when they went one and out. This time it was a different story. The Comets never trailed - although the game was tied 10-10 - in disposing of Hale. Leland led by as many as 18 points, 42-24, early in the third period, but could never really put the Eagles away. Hale, which finished 11-12, closed to within six, 57-51, with 2:10 remaining. "We did not play our best game, but we played well enough to win," Stowe said. "That's all it takes this time of year." Buddy Kenney, a 6-4 junior center, led the Comets with 23 points. Schlueter added 18 and Derek Telgard 17. Kenney and Schlueter combined for 29 first-half points to stake Leland to a 37-24 lead at the break. Telgard netted 13 of his points in the second half to keep the Comets in the driver's seat. Brandon Thompson topped Hale with 19 points - he scored all 10 of the Eagles points in the first quarter. Linden Barclay and Shawn Mothersell chipped in 10 points. It was Barclay's three-pointer with 2:10 remaining that cut the gap to six. But that's the closest the Eagles could get. "Normally, we've been pretty good about putting teams away in that kind of situation," Stowe said. "We didn't have the knockout punch tonight." Part of the problem was that Shlueter picked up his third foul and took a seat on the bench 11 seconds into the third quarter. "That really threw us off rhythm," Stowe said. "He had just had the big first half (13 points). That hurt us." What also hurt is that Leland missed 10 free throws in the fourth quarter, enabling Hale to hang around. "That's very untypical," Stowe said. "We're a good free-throw shooting team. We shoot just under 70 percent as a team. Obviously, we weren't near that tonight, otherwise it would have been a 20-point game." Schlueter credited Leland's diamond press for setting the tone and enabling the Comets to grab the early lead. "We hadn't used it before," he said. "We saved it for tonight ... and it worked." Gaylord St. Mary also took control early, building a 17-8 lead in the first quarter and a 34-20 cushion at half. It was 52-26 after three quarters. Adam Kerfoot paced the Snowbirds with 21 points. Pat Roach added 12 and Andrew Dobrzelewski 11. Brad Mason led Bellaire with 10.
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