Marion guard Grant Kremer kept up his torrid shooting, scoring 11 first quarter points in the Flyers Friday win over Jackson Center. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
After falling to Russia on Friday, Jackson Center got another taste of playoff basketball twenty four hours later with a 52-47 loss to Marion Local.
Jackson Center, OH – Without question, over the span of seven days coach Aaron Klopfenstein and the Jackson Center Tigers now understand that these are the ‘dog days’ of high school basketball.
Just seven days ago, the Tigers were 10-2 and stood as formidable as anyone you’re likely to meet in Division VII southwest Ohio basketball in the upcoming tournament.
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But in those seven days…losses to Wapakoneta, Russia, and Saturday night, to a surging Marion Local team who itself tasted defeat for the first time a week ago, prompting coach Kurt Goettemoeller to say, “We’ll learn from this.”
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Whatever it was they’ve learned, Klopfenstein would likely sign up for the course, the master’s version.
“We took it on the chin this weekend from very quality opponents,” he said following Saturday night’s 52-47 loss to the 14-1 Flyers. ‘Russia and Marion Local are really good, but nonetheless, we took it on the chin. Coaches call January the grind, and teams usually figure out their path based on how that goes – how well you respond to adversity. Your character is revealed…by how quickly you get back up when you get knocked down.”
Suddenly 10-5 after being knocked down on successive nights, their character was again tested for the fact of falling behind Marion Local by a 30-14 margin at halftime; and scoring just 3 points in the second quarter, a three-pointer by senior post man Reed Platfoot.
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“We just went against two teams that play defense pretty darn well,” said Klopfenstein of their back-to-back losses, and the second quarter drought. “Different defenses, but good defenses, and give credit to Marion tonight for not giving us some of the looks that we’ve had in the first half of the season.”
For consistency’s sake, Marion’s 30 points came in much the same fashion as their Friday win against New Bremen. Guard Grant Kremer continued his torrid three-point shooting and had 11 points in the first quarter, while Ryan Homan (4), Austin Niekamp (5), and Brayden Mescher (4) combined to score 13 points in the second.
Marion’s Ryan Homan threads a pass to an open teammate through the legs of Jackson Center’s Lucas Heitkamp.
And pressed to show some of that character after being down by 16, Jackson Center produced it by outscoring Marion 10-6 in the third, fueled by three pointers from Preston Serr and Carter Klopfenstein. Still, the Tigers trailed 36-24 at the end of three, and Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller was feeling pretty good about the eventual outcome. Except….
“We’d lost four straight to Jackson,” said Goettemoeller. “And in my 14 years we had not won over here. So we’re up 16 at the half and you want to strike a balance between being aggressive and shortening the game. So we got a little bit tentative, we made some mistakes, and they hit some really tough shots and got back into the game.”
Trailing by twelve, Jackson suddenly shot like they were facing 30-inch rims.
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Lucas Heitkamp hit a three and scored 5.
Preston Serr hit a pair of threes and scored 8.
Reed Platfoot hit a three and scored 5.
Lucas Heitkamp’s running layup helped cut Marion’s fourth quarter lead.
And when Heitkamp hit his three-pointer at the 3:00 mark of the quarter with Marion’s Kale Ahrens in his face, it cut what was once that 16-point lead down to 4 points…43-39.
“You take nothing for granted,” added Goettemoeller. “They’ve always played tough when Scott (Elchert) was here, and nothing is changed now with Aaron.”
Translation: There’s a reason why Marion had not won at Jackson Center for 14 years.
But 4 points was as close as the Tigers could close. Fighting both Marion and the clock, they had to foul and Marion took advantage of putting points up while the clock was stopped. The Flyers hit 10 of 14 free throws over the final 2:30 of the game to ice things, despite a couple of additional heroic three-pointers by Serr and Platfoot to keep the margin of winning, or losing…depending on your perspective…respectable.
Marion was led by Grant Kremer’s 15 points, Niekamp would finish with 13, Brayden Home and Ryan Homan each had 8.
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For Jackson Center, Preston Serr had 11, Platfoot and Carter Klopfenstein each had 12, and Lucas Heitkamp had 9…but it was too little, too late, as a result of too big a first half hole.
What had Marion Local learned after their week-ago loss to Delphos St. John?
Well, confirmation that they are, indeed, a good basketball team, and as good as 14-1 might indicate.
Jackson Center’s Reed Platfoot shoots over Marion Local’s Austin Niekamp.
No doubt they learned something in the span of a week about that same January grind; and that the best way forward is to come out and share the basketball, trust yourself to make shots, and play the kind of defense that Aaron Klopfenstein mentioned as contributing to his own team’s funk.
“Tonight was a good test,” said Goettemoeller. “Like I said, this has been a house of horrors for us over here, so winning tonight is huge for us. Big for our confidence.
“And we’re not going to face too many better teams. We’ve got a tough district, but winning games like this gives you confidence and we’ve still got a tough stretch of games coming up. Hopefully, that prepares us well for the tournament.”
Klopfenstein, under similar circumstances, would probably have said the same thing. The difference being…at this point, and at 4-1, Marion Local has that confidence.
After losing three in a week, and against a team that’s as good as anyone Jackson Center is about to play…the Tigers do not.
It is, the January grind.
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