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Riku Lempio, a Finnish exchange student, posted a double-double last Friday night with 15 points and 11 rebounds to lead the struggling-of-late Eagles past the Mancelona Ironmen, 47-39.

"Lempio played a really nice game," Bellaire head coach Stan Sexton said after the game. "He played good defense. Tony Derrer (Mancelona's center) is a scorer.

"Pride took over tonight."

Bellaire senior guard thought the key to the win was his team's renewed intensity.

"We hustled a lot and definitely rebounded, which we haven't done recently," he said.

Lempio scored the game's first two baskets to stake the Eagles to an early 4-0 lead. Brad Guy followed Lempio's lead by scoring two buckets to push the lead to 8-0 with 4:30 left in the first quarter. Mancelona's Adam Duerksen got his club on the board with a basket to make it 8-2, but Guy responded with a 3-pointer and then the Finnish Phenom scored again.

Lempio put an exclamation point on the end of the first quarter when he grabbed an uncontested offensive rebound and scored just before the buzzer putting the Eagles ahead, 19-6.

Mancelona showed more fire in the second quarter and battled back to within 23-21 at half, and then Mike Herczak tied the game at 25-all with 6:44 left in the third.

Sexton called a timeout at that point to stall Mancelona's momentum, and it seemed to have worked because the Ironmen never took the lead or brought the game to another tie the rest of the way.

By the end of the third, the Eagles had rebuilt an 8-point cushion, 34-26, and never allowed the Ironmen to get back within five the rest of the way. Lempio had 7 points in the fourth quarter on 5-of-6 shooting from the free throw line.

"It was just a good, hard-fought game," Mancelona head coach Rick Duerksen said afterwards. "We struggled in the beginning and got back into it, but Bellaire's just a good team, and they made more points than we did.

"We got beat by a good team."

"I was very impressed with Mancelona's scrappy defense," Sexton said. "Both teams went at each other hard. The difference was the first quarter, and we were able to build a lead in the third and maintain it."

Guy added 13 points for Bellaire, and Chris Dewey recorded 10 with 8 rebounds.

Greg Blanco led Mancelona with 15 points.

Both teams ended the regular season last night (Tuesday). Mancelona plays in the first round of the districts on Feb. 25 at T.C. St. Francis against the Gladiators. Bellaire plays Alba on Monday with the winner moving on to play Ellsworth.

Sexton anticipates several close games in Bellaire's district. "The team that comes out of here has a good shot of winning the regional," he said.

Sexton has high hopes for his team, but he knows they'll have to start playing better than they have been recently.

"We've been in a little bit of a funk," he said. "Hopefully we come out of that."

The potential rematch against Ellsworth next Wednesday is particularly intriguing, given the two teams' close games this year.

"We were shorthanded (in the last game, an Ellsworth victory)," Sexton said. "That's not an excuse, but hopefully everyone's healthy and we'll go at each other and see what happens.

"We've had two close games and we'll have another I suspect."
Bellaire 67, Gaylord St. Mary 62

Bellaire survived a comeback attempt by the Snowbirds last Wednesday evening to post a 67-62 victory and clinch the SVC title.

The Eagles led by 10 at halftime, 33-23, but the Snowbirds stormed back and scored 23 points in the fourth quarter to force overtime.

The Eagles outscored the Snowbirds 9-4 in the extra frame to emerge victorious.

Sean Payne led all scorers with 24 points. Brady Guy added 17. Chris Dewey recorded 9 points and 9 boards.

Gaylord St. Mary was led by Alvin Sitkiewicz with 23 points. Peter Spyhalski and Matt Foster each had 11.