Lake Leelanau St. Mary will put its undefeated Cherryland Conference record on the line Friday amid the excitement of Homecoming when the Eagles host Northport.

The Eagles boys’ basketball team is 6-8 overall and 3-0 in the Cherryland, Northport is is 7-8 overall but 1-1 in conference play, giving the game extra meaning in the 4-team conference race.

“Friday night at St. Mary will be a really big game,” confirmed Wildcat coach Jeff Tropf. The Eagles beat Northport, 47-35, in the teams’ first meeting on Jan. 11.

Both squads were 1-1 in games played during the past week, with St. Mary falling Tuesday to Frankfort, 65-54, after beating Leelanau School last Thursday, 83-35.

The Eagles were leading Frankfort 17-16 after one quarter and trailed by two at halftime, 30-28. It was the third quarter that did them in.

“They were all over us in the third,” St. Mary coach Jim Smith said, as his team was outscored 15-8.

Tim Wigton paced the Eagles with 14 points. Matt Pasch had 12 and Kienan Sutton 11 in the non-conference match.

“We came out and played hard. It was a good game,” Smith said. “We just let up a little in the third (quarter) and they turned up the defensive pressure.”

Assistant varsity coach Pete Finch filled in for Smith against Leelanau School.

“The guys were looking for each other out on the court. There was a cohesiveness to their actions. They had to adjust to a tight and well played zone by the Leelanau School,” Finch said.

The Eagles used that balanced attack to dominate throughout, with quarter leads of 32-11, 49-26 and 71-32.

Thunderbird Alex Finkell led his team with 17 points, including a half-court shot as the clock ran out in the first half. Zach Stanz contributed 10.

St. Mary’s roster was reduced to seven players by the flu bug. Of those, five scored in double figures: Ryan Korson had 22 points, Ryan Couturier 19, Pasch 13, Sutton 12, and Wigton 11. Sophomore Gabe Gallagher was the top rebounder with 8.
Leelanau fell to 2-5 Tuesday with a 61-47 loss at the hands of the T-C Bulldogs, a home-schooled team.

“Although we were tied at the half — and down by only three at the end of the third quarter — (the Bulldogs) had some strong free throw shooting at the end which pulled it through,” Thunderbird coach Jim Douglas said.

Leelanau had three players in double figures. Connor Landick had 14 points, Chris Omerza contributed 12 points and 11 rebounds, and senior Zach Stanz had a dozen points and pulled down nine rebounds.

Adam Brown topped Bulldog scorers with 20 points.

Meanwhile, Northport notched an important win for its program last Wednesday over Buckley, 45-43, before falling Tuesday to Leland, 64-31.

Jesse Bressette scored 12 and Basil Stowe 10 in the win, while Jason Tropf scored 8, grabbed 7 rebounds and blocked 12 shots.

Credit Stowe with hitting two free throws with 30 seconds left to preserve the lead.

Leland dominated Northport Friday night after a close first quarter in which the Wildcats at one point trailed 15-12. Nate Sneed and Jordan Gibson each scored 15 for the Comets. Marcus Whittaker hit for 12 points, with Eric Larsen contributing 8.

Stowe and Bressette each scored 6, with Erik Johnson adding 5 for Northport.

Following Friday’s Homecoming game, the Eagles are scheduled to face the Bulldogs and Traverse City Prep will travel to Glen Arbor to face the Thunderbirds. Both games are Tuesday.