Jackson Wiechert’s late three-point shooting was the difference in last year’s Delphos St. John win over Marion Local. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
By far the most anticipated game of the weekend in west-central Ohio, the battle of MAC undefeateds overshadows even the NFL playoffs, CFP finals on Monday night.
Available tickets for tonight’s Marion Local-Delphos St. John basketball game reportedly sold out in less than five minutes on Monday.
And that’s unprecedented, even in a day of hyperbole over high school athletic matchups. In Midwest Athletic Conference legend, even Marion Local-Coldwater football games aren’t typically this anticipated.
The reason?
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Both Marion Local in Division VI, and Delphos St. John in Division VII, are undefeated, both are expected to be prominently ranked in next week’s first public state-wide coach’s poll…and last Sunday’s four-point overtime win by Delphos St. John over Lima Central Catholic in a showdown of shooting guards Cam Elwer (Delphos) and Jordan Priddy (LCC) only turned up the heat for Friday’s conference showdown in Maria Stein.
Why all the fuss?
Well, realistically, what else is there to do in Maria Stein and Delphos, Ohio on a January Friday night…a pair of communities that support their schools and athletic legacies with unquestionable priority and enthusiasm.
But owing to in-the-moment focus…both Marion and St. John are past state champions, with Delphos seeking their third state title in 2026, and their first since their win over Russia High School back in 2002 when there were only four divisions of boys basketball in Ohio.
Marion Local owns three previous titles in basketball, in 1975, 2003, and 2018…and the Flyers finished runners-up last March in the Division VI finals to Monroe Central.
Individual strengths?
Marion Local is known for its scrappy defense, turnovers, and points scored in transition.
Marion Local is the physically bigger team, overall, highly athletic, and relies heavily on a well-respected reputation for team defense. The Flyers are known for forcing turnovers and feasting on points in transition, and due to their size they typically win the rebound battle. Not known as a high-scoring offense, they do have dependable perimeter shooters through ten games with guards Brayden Mescher, Luke Everman, and Grant Kremer. The Flyers are averaging 56.5 points per game.
Delphos St. John has a deserved reputation for being an up-tempo, highly-efficient shooting team from three-point range, leading the MAC Conference in that stat category behind senior Cam Elwer, a commit to play at Division I Furman University. Elwer is the all-time league scoring leader in the MAC, and is projected to finish his high school career having scored close to 3,000 points – one of Ohio’s all-time greats. But Delphos is loaded with players capable of sharing the basketball and hitting the three-point shot, so the nightly question among those who follow and watch them…if it’s not Cam, then who?
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“He’s not just a good shooter, he’s an elite shooter on the national scale of high school basketball players,” Furman assistant coach Pat Estepp said last weekend after watching Elwer score 31 points in their win over LCC…on a poor shooting day from behind the three-point line. “He would be our best three-point shooter on the roster right now if he were playing at Furman.”
But Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller takes great pride in his team’s ability to play defense, has scouted Cam Elwer for four years, and well remembers last year’s loss to St. John when he held Elwer to 19 points, only to lose late on a trio of unexpected three-point shots from St. John teammate Jackson Wiechert, who finished with 15 points…and those three late daggers. Delphos hit 10 of 23 three-point attempts for the game (43%).
Translation: The Blue Jays have options.
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“You give St. John credit,” said Goettemoeller, after the 2025 game. “We wanted to make someone else beat us (besides Elwer), and they did. They needed other guys to step up, and they did.”
So all of this serves as the overture to Friday night’s anticipated rematch. Delphos St. John comes in averaging 72.5 points a game, nearly twenty more than Marion, so the challenge is squarely on the Flyers’ defense and whether one more time…someone else besides Cam Elwer can step up at game-winning time.
Asked this week who I expect to win…like Goettemoeller, I remember last year’s game. No one had ever heard of Jackson Wiechert, and he’s still there.
So I shrug, knowing that both teams are older and wiser – improved versions of what they were back then. I defer to the cliches’.
Basketball takes your breath away (or breaks your heart) when the shooters show up.
And defense always travels. Or in this case…it could be the unwelcoming host.
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