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Coach David Manchester knows he has good athletes on the team, and that they are capable of performing much better than they have down the stretch.

Most disappointing of all, the Blazers' losing streak continued last Friday night with a 74-58 loss to Traverse City St. Francis.

The Blazers haven't won since beating the Gladiators in the first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 20.

It's not the way Kalkaska wanted to be heading into the post-season, with a losing streak in tow.

Kalkaska doesn't have much time to reverse their fortunes and gain some momentum for the post-season.

Where the Blazers fell down last Friday night was on defense.

Holden Greiner and Corey Williams scorched the Kalkaska defense for a combined 41 points.

"We have to play better defense, take care of the ball and be more consistent overall if we're going to get anywhere in the tournament," Manchester said.

Greiner scored 24 points for the Gladiators in the Lake Michigan Conference game. He also had 12 rebounds, 6 assists and 6 steals.

Williams added 17 points as St. Francis improved to 11-3 overall and 6-2 in the conference.

Travis Schuba fired in a game-high 30 points for the Blazers, who fell to 4-10 overall and 3-6 in the league.

John Kasza contributed 11 points and pulled down 7 rebounds for Kalkaska. Kalkaska also had trouble inside, where the Gladiators owned a 42-20 rebounding advantage.

St. Francis led 17-13 after the first period, 36-28 at the half and 51-36 at the end of the third quarter.

"When you get outrebounded by that big of a margin, you're going to have trouble," Manchester said.

"It negated our fastbreak, and we didn't have many second-chance opportunities either."

Kalkaska is not scheduled to play until Friday, when the Blazers host Charlevoix. Charlevoix is 9-0 in the conference.