He scored 11, but was responsible for at least that many more. Marion’s Brayden Mescher drives to the rim in Tuesday’s win over Botkins. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Sonny Fulks)
Marion Local couldn’t have played much better, and Botkins simply couldn’t match up in Tuesday’s battle of the unbeatens from MAC and Shelby County League.
Botkins, OH – As he stood in the hall outside his locker room, before boarding the bus back to Mercer County Tuesday, Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller called it “a good Tuesday night.”
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At the other end of the hall, after a protracted post-game meeting with his team, Botkins coach Phil Groves simply, and succinctly called it “a disappointment.”
In the much-anticipated matchup of unbeatens from the neighboring leagues and neighboring counties, Division VI Marion Local (8-0) literally rolled over the Division VII Botkins Trojans Tuesday in front of a packed house, 66-33.
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“They were simply better in every facet of the game,” Groves said quietly without changing his expression. “We’re extremely disappointed in our performance tonight. Marion Local’s a great team with athletic players in every position. They play with physicality and intensity, they dominated every aspect of the game – they did it all. It was definitely not our night tonight.”
If there is such a thing as a basketball bucket list, Goettemoeller, a self-professed perfectionist, could have checked nearly every box.
The Marion defense was stifling – in Groves’ words, physical. As always.
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They created turnovers with their size and pressure on the basketball.
They scored in transition off those turnovers and rebounds, unofficially, a 22-6 advantage over Botkins.
Zoom…Marion’s Grant Kremer sprints past a Botkins defender to the rim in Tuesday’s non-conference matchup of unbeatens.
Their backcourt play with Brayden Mescher, Grant Kremer, and your choice of a third guard rotating in and out of the game, was on point with seeing the court and delivering the ball to the open man. Marion finished the game with 16 assists.
That same size advantage gave them an obvious advantage in rebounding, on both the offensive and defensive boards. Trojan points off a stickback were few and far between.
And, of course, with a 33-point margin you get everyone in the game.
“And everyone who played scored,” said Brayden Mescher, afterwards. “All nine. That’s pretty cool.”
Marion Local led 14-7 at the end of the first period…and 34-19 at the end of the first half. And no amount of timeouts, or substitutions that Groves employed seemed to make a difference with the gathering momentum that the Flyers accumulated with each passing possession.
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“Credit to them,” said Grove, making no attempt to put lipstick on his team’s performance. “But it’s easy to play good offense when you’re not being defended very well, and I was very disappointed with our effort and intensity on defense tonight, overall.”
Marion’s Brennen Hess led the Flyers in points (15) and shots to the nose.
Marion would collect just four three-pointers for the game, in eleven attempts, unlike their performance against Anna last Friday night. But they didn’t need them. Brennen Hess had a team-high 15 points and nearly all of them came on runouts to the rim – transition points off turnovers and defensive rebounds.
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And the guy distributing the basketball and running the point was Mescher, who at 6’3″ was simply bigger and stronger than any matchup that Groves could find with his own backcourt. Finally, in the third quarter, he switched 6’1″ forward Tucker Huelskamp to defend Mescher, who took the opportunity to pull the offense back out, make the extra pass, and find a cutter to the rim or a wide open jump shots for Grant Kremer (10 pts), Marcus Schwieterman (4), Luke Everman (4) and Marcus Moeller (8). Proving, as if it was necessary, that they could do more than run and shoot layups. Mescher finished with six assists, along with 11 points of his own.
The lead grew to 52-30 by the end of the third period, and with both teams playing subs in the fourth, Marion’s outscored Botkins’ 14-3.
Eli Pitts would end up leading the Trojans with 15 points (10 in the first half), and center Owen Zimpher finished with 11.
“I told them in the locker room that we have a lot of work to do,” added Groves. “But truthfully, Marion Local is a matchup nightmare with that size and athleticism. We felt going in that we had a good feel for who could guard who, but obviously we didn’t do a very good job.”
Botkins’ Eli Pitts gets pinched between a pair of Flyer defenders. He finished the game with 15 points.
All of which made Kurt Goettemoeller smile all the more over the best Tuesday of the season, so far.
“We really played well tonight, at least for the most part,” he said. “I think like a perfectionist, and we had chances to blow ’em out in the first half. But we’d get a basket and give them a couple of easy ones, and that’s going to happen in a game. But overall, they pressured our perimeter, so the game plan was to space them out and get downhill. And sometimes you can get to the rim, sometimes you pitch it back out for an open shot, and sometimes you just keep running the offense.
“We had to play a different style tonight…a team that was up in our face like they were…and I was pleased with how our kids responded because we really haven’t seen that style so far this year.”
And the point play of Brayden Mescher, perhaps the worst of the matchups for Botkins, is a matchup that’s going to favor Goettemoeller and the Flyers on most nights.
“I guess he’s about 6’2″,” smiled Goettemoeller. “But he plays bigger than he looks out there. He’s a strong kid, and they couldn’t take it from him, and when they doubled him he made them pay for it. He’s a great player, he’s been playing for a couple of years, he’s really worked on his game, and credit to Brayden. We need to have him on the floor, for sure.”
If you’re shocked Wednesday when you read the score, don’t be. Botkins (8-1) is a far better team than a 33-point loss to a team like Marion on a bad night. And every player, as they left the locker room, was reminded about practice on Wednesday, and to come prepared.
If you’re wondering…prepared for what?
Well, Phil Groves never did say…or crack a smile.
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