OGEMAW HEIGHTS - Mar. 12, 2010 - Ogemaw Heights owned the third quarter nearly every game it played this season.

Standish-Sterling felt the blunt end of that particular stick Friday as the Falcons blew open their Class B district title matchup with a 28-point explosion on the way to a 65-46 victory over the Panthers.

The Falcons led 25-14 at the end of a sloppy first half, but coach Jon VanOosten said his players believed their best was yet to come.

"Other than our last game we've been a third quarter team," he said. "I didn't say anything about it; they brought it up at halftime. They said, 'Let's go out and take care of business.' And they did."

Just when Standish-Sterling was making some noise about getting back in the game, the Falcons exploded. SSC's Bobby Sanch hit a 3-pointer and Tyler Bartys flipped in a reverse layup to get the Panthers to within 31-24, but Ogemaw's Alex Jennings scored seven quick points to get his team going on a 22-6 run to end the quarter. And as if to make the point that this was to be Ogemaw's night, Robby Kish ended the quarter by picking up a loose ball and flipping in 23-foot 3-pointer at the third quarter buzzer.

"Tonight was a good lesson for our non-seniors," said SSC coach Tom Murray. "Our turnovers were atrocious; a lot of them were unforced. Our free throw shooting was atrocious.

"That's not to discredit Ogemaw at all. We came out from halftime down 11 and figured we were in good shape because we couldn't play much worse. Ogemaw took just a couple of minutes to put that spurt on and we couldn't do much about it. There's no shame for us losing to them the way they played in the second half."

Ogemaw sprinted out to a quick 13-3 lead as Jennings  buried a pair of 3-pointers early, but Ogemaw started getting the ball inside to Cole Walderzak, who had seven points in the opening quarter as the Panthers pulled to within 15-9.

The two teams went nearly four minutes without scoring midway through a turnover-filled second period, but Justin Wejsa's six quick points to close the quarter put the Falcons up 25-14.

Wejsa continued his strong play in the second half, scoring 14 of his 22 points after the break.

"We talked for awhile about taking his game up to the next step," VanOosten said. "And he really did that."

Jennings added 21 points as the Falcons improved to 21-2 and advanced to Monday's regional semifinal at Cheboygan against Gladstone.

"The last loss to Pinny really did us some good," VanOosten said. "The practices after that were pretty tough.

"We've never won a regional title, and to do that you have to get a little bit lucky. If we can win our first game we could end up playing Petoskey, who's been in the top 10 all year. I think on the right night, we're capable of it."

Walderzak finished with 17 points with Sanch adding 14, all in the second half, as the Panthers wrapped up a 15-7 season that saw a team with just three seniors register marked improvement.

"That first night I never thought we could win 15 games," Murray said. "I thought maybe if the stars aligned and the tides were perfect we might win one.

"Tonight wasn't our best show, but I'm real proud of them."