Kale Ahrens takes the ball strong to the basket against MVCA. Ahrens scored 10 points. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Logan Howard)
Marion Local did the simple things well to fly by Miami Valley Christian Academy in the regional semifinals. Tough defense and relentless rebounding earned a 64-29 win, and a battle with Anna for a regional title.
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The Marion Local Flyers found a winning formula against Miami Valley Christian Academy in the regional semifinals. If they take about 15 more shots than their opponent, they’re gonna win. Doesn’t take Calc 2 to figure that one out.
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The Flyers controlled the rebounding battle, allowing them second and third looks, while containing MVCA to just two second-chance points on the way to a 64-29 win in a Division VI regional semifinal.
“We should dominate the glass,” head coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. “We got big strong kids and a 6-8 kid in the middle. We’ve been doing that all year.”
Goettemoeller’s squad will drive back down I-75 to face Anna on Saturday at 2 p.m at the Nutter Center. Their last trip to a regional championship in 2023 ended in a one-point loss to state runner-up Convoy Crestview. But if they’re looking for a sign that a second chance might go well for them, they need look no further than the second-chance points scored on Tuesday night.
Marion Local’s Ryan Homan goes high to keep a loose ball away from MVCA.
The entire rotation of Flyers played sound basketball, boxing out on defense, scrapping for rebounds on offense, limiting mental mistakes and sticking to the game plan.
The game plan was to run MVCA’s group of shooters off the three-point line, and into the waiting arms of 6-foot-8 Austin Niekamp. It worked to perfection. MVCA’s star guard, Gavin French, averages 18.6 points per game, and he does it by shooting 45.9% from three. But under the strict defensive supervision of Kale Ahrens, he scored four points and didn’t hit from beyond the arc.
Offensively Marion Local went through a few evolutions, adapting to whatever was working. A diverse attack allowed five players to score nine or more points. Niekamp and Grant Kremer led with 14 each, Ahrens scored 10, and Brayden Mescher and Daniel Everman put up nine.
In the first quarter they leaned into the long ball – borrowing from MVCA’s style and nailing four threes. For about four minutes the Lions hung with the Flyers, even taking the first lead, but it was like cotton candy in a rain storm. You can’t give up two shots on defense and shoot just one, or zero, on offense and keep it close.
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“Rebounding was huge for us,” Niekamp said. “When you face a team that can shoot like they do, you have to rebound on defense. And we had a lot of guys getting offensive rebounds as well.”
With two minutes left in the first quarter, Niekamp hit his second 3-pointer from the top of the arc, this one after an offensive rebound.
Grant Kremer pulls up in the paint for two on his way to 14 points.
“It was nice to finally hit a couple after going zero for six or seven on Friday,” Niekamp said.
The Flyers poked the ball away from a ballhandler on the ensuing possession and found Kremer in the corner on a long pass. Nothing but net. MVCA called timeout down 18-8, and the lead never dipped back below 10.
MVCA started the game in a triangle and two on Niekamp and Kremer, but abandoned it early after Marion found other scorers without issue. Five Flyers scored at least three points in the first quarter.
The defensive scheme change helped put a hand in the face of Marion Local shooters, and the 3-ball cooled off in the second quarter, but misses often became offensive rebounds. MVCA couldn’t match Niekamp’s 6-8 frame, and he wasn’t alone in the effort. The hustle and tenacity mismatch overshadowed even the size disparity. Marion decided to own the basketball off the rim, and the Lions’ energy didn’t match.
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Even 5-10 Everman grabbed a Marion miss surrounded by three Lions, all at least 6-0, and put it right back up for two.
MVCA’s pair of guards, French and Casey Heap, are the scorers, but they had no answer for Marion Local’s sticky defense. Heap finished with 13 points, and Jude Rosen followed distantly with six.
Austin Niekamp hit 3-pointers and attacked the basket like this to score 14 points for the Flyers.
“Our mindset was to not give them threes,” Goettemoeller said. “They can really shoot the basketball … and we just said we gotta make them drive it on us and shoot it over our size. And they struggled to finish in the interior.”
Niekamp sat the last six minutes of the first half with two fouls, and the Flyers still gave up only two points in that stretch.
“When I had to sit out, the guys were super switchable and we really didn’t skip a beat, especially defensively,” Niekamp said.
The team effort in defense, scoring and rebounding was impressive to the point it’s tough to single out any player, but Ahrens was quietly critical to Marion’s first-half success. He scored seven points and shut out French in man-to-man defense for the first 14 and a half minutes.
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“It was just about running them off the three-point line and into Austin,” Ahrens said. “If you aren’t giving up threes, it’s pretty easy to just run them into a 6-8 guy.”
He highlighted his 10-point scoring night with a dazzling finish through contact in the second quarter.
Daniel Everman scored nine points and was one of five Flyers to score at least that many.
Marion held a 32-13 halftime advantage and put all doubt to rest on the first possession of the second half. Kremer inbounded from the baseline, got a screen from Niekamp, and buried another corner 3 to make the lead 22 – insurmountable without a run MVCA exhibited no sign of being able to produce.
A brief lull in rebounding intensity in the fourth will be forgotten by most, maybe all save for Goettemoeller, who made note of it. But it had no impact as Marion’s equal opportunity offense continued to inflate the lead.
“Austin can score from anywhere on the court,” Ahrens said. “Then there’s Grant with his shooting, Brayden is able to get to the rim, Ryan [Homan] is an underrated shooter on our team, and then we got guys off the bench like Daniel who can obviously put the ball in the hole.”
Marcus Schwieterman’s late 3-pointer gave Marion the winning 64-29 score, and made him the ninth and final Flyer to score.
Saturday’s game will look different for Marion Local, as MVCA’s propensity for shootouts and 3-pointers will be replaced by the defensive-minded Anna Rockets. Expect the first to 40 points at the Nutter Center to advance to the state semifinals, likely against the winner of Lima Central Catholic and Colonel Crawford.
Marion Local beat Anna 61-40 back in late December, but the Rockets are on a 10-game win streak, including three overtime wins and most on Tuesday, a thrilling one-point upset of Tri-Village in the regional semis.
But 10-game win streaks and December results count for nada on Saturday. After all, anything can happen in basketball’s best month … March!
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