Cavs flyin’ high…Luke Schwieterman scores 2 of his 10 points over the top of Marion’s Austin Niekamp in Friday’s 53-40 Coldwater win. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Coldwater’s Baylen Blockberger scored 23 points, handled Marion Local’s pressure on and off the court, and helped deliver a 13-point win to remain unbeaten in MAC play.
Maria Stein, OH – Whether you believe that despite what Baylen Blockberger said afterwards…or because of what he said following Friday night’s 53-40 win at Marion Local…we should all probably believe by now that Coldwater is a pretty good basketball team in 2024.
The Cavaliers are 15-3, overall, 7-0 in conference play, and headed for next week’s head-to-head showdown with Cam Elwer and the Delphos St. John Blue Jays for the MAC’s outright title in basketball.
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“We’re really not a basketball school,” said Blockberger, outside the Cavaliers’ locker room. “We just [compete] like we do in football, so coming to Marion, a really hard place to play, and beating them is one of my favorite wins of the year.”
Sure he said that, and no one could have said it better with a White House speech writer. People really don’t think of Coldwater in terms of basketball. But they do compete like they do in football, and yes…to come to a place as hard to win in as Marion Local and pull it off, well, sure…you know it was a satisfying, and telling win.
The telling part being that Coldwater withstood three quarters of 2-3 zone, some man-to-man and 1-3-1 in the final five minutes, and managed to shoot 50% from the floor, 86% from the foul line, and had a minimal number of turnovers against Marion’s pressure on defense…and pressure from a raucous packed house. They did everything that a good team HAS to do to win a basketball game in a tough, hostile environment.
“We thought we’d have a good opportunity this year with these guys because we had a good summer,” said coach Nick Fisher. “We took some lumps last year, but a lot of these guys got some serious experience. So we’re pretty excited about being 7-0 with the chance to play St. John next week.”
Baylen Blockberger wheels past a defender and down the lane towards two of his game-high 23 points against Marion Local.
Nick Fisher has also taken his share of lumps during a 30-year coaching career, and doesn’t get overly excited about highs, or lows, either one. He just shows up prepared, takes his chances, and his team is the perfect reflection of his personality and self-control.
For instance, Marion came out in the first quarter with a stingy 2-3 zone, made Coldwater play patiently, and they did it well enough to hit one more shot that Marion did for the eight minutes, and led 10-9 after it was over.
Ditto for the second quarter, in which Blockberger began to assert himself, offensively, with a bucket, a three-pointer, and a pair of free throws…7 for the quarter, and 9 for the half. Coldwater led 20-15 at the break.
They didn’t junk it up defensively against Marion. Fisher and the Cavaliers played man defense and forced the Flyers to run offense farther from the rim than they would have liked, and take shots outside of eighteen feet. They had some good looks, sure enough, but not enough of them fell.
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And when Coldwater – Blockberger – scored the first 5 points of the third quarter Marion was forced to call a timeout to regroup. And out of that timeout Mitchell Ranly and Austin Niekamp hit a pair of threes to cut Coldwater’s lead back to single figures, eight points.
But no sooner had they than Blockberger hit a three of his own, cool as you please, to further frustrate Marion’s effort to claw back into it.
Size didn’t matter…6′ Baylen Blockberger shoots over 6’9″ Jack Knapke to score during Friday’s Cavalier win over Marion Local.
“I told the kids that if we could get it to 6 this place would rock,” said Flyer coach Kurt Goettemoeller. “But credit Coldwater, and credit Blockberger. They’re really good and it was a frustrating night for us, offensively.”
Blockberger would score eight in the third quarter, teammate Luke Schwieterman would also score eight, as they built on their halftime advantage to go ahead, 41-32.
Marion was game, however, but just couldn’t score enough points in the final eight minutes from Jack Knapke (5), and a three-pointer by Dylan Dirksen off the bench, to threaten…while Blockberger would pad his game-high total of 23, Schwieterman had 10, and Nolan Kunk quietly added 10 of his own. Coldwater closed it out, 53-40.
No one saw this happening this year, the 15-3, and the emergence of Baylen Blockberger, with perhaps the exception of Nick Fisher.
“He’s just a heady kid, and I can’t stress enough how hard he works,” said Fisher. “He’s in the gym after practice working on his skill set, and he puts in a lot of time on ball-handling, finishing at the rim, and that occasional shot that makes you ask how he did that. He gets everything he deserves.
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And collectively….?
“It’s just one of those things you understand if you’re in the gym everyday. And if you’ve coached for 30 years you truly appreciate it because this is something you don’t see all the time. Mason Welsch has been out for a while, and he talked before the game with Versailles about the importance of going out to compete…and that’s what they do. They’ve been together as a group since kindergarten and they just go out and compete.”
Marion’s Daniel Everman and Coldwater’s Brady Lefeld set their sights on the ball……
Still, while they’ve enjoyed sustained success over the years in football and baseball (seven titles in each), success like they’re enjoying in basketball has come and gone like the comet Kohoutek. Blockberger smiles at the mention of how he and his teammates are enjoying the current moment.
“This is just as satisfying as winning in football,” he begins. “We’re not a big basketball school, so to come to a tough place to play like Marion really is one of my favorite wins of the year. Their record isn’t as good as normal, but you get your mind set because you know they’re still a good team. We prepared like they’re the best Marion team they can have. It was physical, there were a lot of fouls, but I love playing that style of basketball.”
So yes, the MAC title will be determined at the OK Corral next Friday night, actually at the Palace in Coldwater, with a midweek tuneup against Fort Loramie.
For their part, Delphos St. John blew out St. Henry Friday in the first half, then cruised to 74-41 win in the second to raise their overall record to 17-2, and 7-0 in conference.
“I’m just happy for them (his players),” said Fisher before boarding the bus for the ride home. “They deserve this.”
And up in Delphos, as you might imagine…they’re saying the same thing!
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