Cam Elwer hit his first five shots to stake the Blue Jays to a 16-6 lead in the first quarter. “We had to stay in the game early to have a chance,” said Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller. “And we didn’t do it.” (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In as complete a performance as is possible in high school basketball, Delphos St. John’s Cameron Elwer put on a shooting clinic, scored 35 points, and hit all seven of his three-point attempts in a Blue Jays statement win over unbeaten Marion Local.
Maria Stein, OH – Someone mumbled as they left the gym at Marion Local Friday night, “Unbeaten no more.”
Unbeaten no more, perhaps. But unbowed, as Kurt Goettemoeller’s Marion Local Flyers suffered through a miserable shooting night and a 66-36 humbling at the hands of the Delphos St. John Blue Jays, now the only unbeaten in the Midwest Athletic Conference basketball. On the same night, Versailles lost to Coldwater, 57-50. So…then there was one!
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If you can put it together, prior to Friday night’s ransacking of Marion Local (10-1) there had been three – Marion, Versailles and Delphos St. John. But St. John’s senior guard Cameron Elwer pretty much took subtraction upon himself in the ‘Hangar’ at Marion, scoring 35 points, hitting 12 of 14 shots from the field, 7 of 7 from three-point range…and in the fourth quarter proved to be pretty much a one-man wrecking crew, hitting four consecutive bombs of increasing distance to conclude his night.
“I can’t think of having a better game,” said Elwer afterwards, wearing a deserved smile. “There was the Coldwater game my sophomore year, and earlier this year I missed one shot against Van Wert, but this one was special. There was some emotion tonight because I just wanted to win. I tried to make the right play and put the team in the best situation to come out on top.”
It punctuated what had been a long and frustrating night for the Marion Local faithful who could only watch in stunned respect for one of the great shooting performances you’ll see in a high school basketball game.
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Unofficially, he took fourteen shots and gave notice early in the first quarter that the rim looked as big as a trash can. Elwer hit his first five, including a three-pointer to stake Delphos St. John to 16-6 lead after eight minutes of thorough basketball by the now 13-0 Blue Jays.
Luke Everman races to the rim for two of his 11 points…the top figure for Marion Local.
“You know that something like that is possible when you play those guys,” said Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller. “They’ve embarrassed a lot or teams the last couple of years. And my biggest fears came true because I knew we had to make some shots in this game, to stay in the game. And we got down by ten early, we were down ten at the half, and once they get up on you like that they can spread you out and become really hard to guard. I knew that the first three minutes of the second half were going to be important, and we got three quick stops to start the third quarter. But we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole tonight. And that was the story of the night.
“If we could have kept the deficit at six or eight points I think it could have been a different game. But they get all the credit because they guarded us so well, and we have kids who are capable of making those shots. But we didn’t make them tonight, and we were 0 for 7 from the foul line. We had to stay in the game early to have a chance, and we didn’t do it.”
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That said, Marion righted itself in the second quarter, matching St. John 14-14 as Brayden Mescher and Kale Ahrens combined to score 10 of their 14 points the hard way…by slugging it out and finishing at the rim. Still, they could not cut into the Blue Jays margin and trailed by 10 at the break, 30-20.
And it’s true that Marion stymied the Delphos shooting onslaught on those first three possessions of the second half. But to Goettemoeller’s point, they couldn’t make shots of their own end to cut into the lead. Elwer, who scored 16 in the first half, quickly hit the first of his five three-pointers in the second half, finished the quarter with 7 points…and got some help from his younger brother Andrew, who chipped in a three pointer from the corner to help finalize a 15-4 Blue Jays scoring run to finish the quarter. Mescher and Brennen Hess would score the only two buckets for the Flyers and Delphos St. John led 45-24 to start the fourth quarter.
Delphos St. John’s Tyce McClain attacks the rim to score during the Blue Jays’ 15-4 run in the third quarter.
Elwer got some quiet, but considerable support throughout from brother Andrew, who finished the game with 13 points and a trio of three-pointers of his own. But the older Elwer needed little help in the final quarter, and may have used a little motivation from the Marion student section, who had been riding him pretty good, to sharpen his focus. Despite Marion’s tenacity on defense, on DSJ’s opening possession Elwer ended up on the wing with an open look and buried a three to expand the lead to 48-24.
Two possessions later he launched from the top of the key over Marion’s Kale Ahrens, and perhaps a step farther out than his previous shot. It touched nothing but net.
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“We went to a 1-3-1 zone in the fourth quarter,” said Kurt Goettomoeller, trying to find a different defensive option. “And that got completely blown out. And it wasn’t the kids fault. Against any other player our effort level would have been fine. But against him we had to raise our level a little bit because you can’t let him dribble to the three-point line. If he gets there he can either get by you on the dribble or hit the three.
“He was tremendous, his brother got involved, and together they scored 26 of the 30 points they had in the first half.”
He played defense, too…Cam Elwer slaps the ball out of the hands of Marion Local’s Bradyen Mescher during Friday’s win .
His final shot of the night was his longest, somewhere out around where the NBA three-point line would be, and he drained that, too. And before he left the court he had the last word with the student section.
“Not sure you can write much of that,” he laughed later. “I just told them I’d see them down the road. Yeah, you can write that.”
Elwer’s 35 led all scorers, of course. Andrew Elwer finished with 13, Tyce McClain had 9, Maddox Kroeger had 5, and Easton Elwer had 4. The Blue Jays shot 52% from the floor, 7 of 11 from three point range, and 7 0f 7 from the foul line.
Marion Local finished shooting 36% with Luke Everman leading them with 11 points. Brayden Mescher had 8, Bennen Hess had 6, Isaac Moeller had 5, Kale Ahrens had 4 and Oliver Huelsman had 2. Marion missed all seven of its attempts from the foul line.
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Afterwards, Delphos coach Aaron Elwer talked about the game, and not without a note of pride…the contribution of his two sons who accounted for 48 of the Blue Jays 66 points.
“We’re in the grinder part of our season,” said Elwer. “These are the dog days with a brutal six-game run in our schedule. And someone just mentioned in the locker room that the fun starts now, and tonight was a bunch of fun. We saw them play Botkins and I walked away convinced that tonight was going to be extremely tough for us to get good looks. And sometimes I might not give our guys enough credit for how good they are…or how much time they put into preparation. How confident they are. And all three of those things were on display tonight.
“I think we wore on them, the way we spaced the floor. And our ability to make shots…the work that we put in during the week…it all came to fruition tonight. And what a great night for it to happen. Andrew showed that he’s a really good player, and he needs to attempt several threes in a game because he’s too good of a shooter. Cam was doing his thing, and we have two or three other guys we feel good about shooting the ball. ”
Asked about Cam doing his thing, Coach Elwer drew a breath before answering.
A smile of appreciation…He bleeds blue but Marion coaching legend Jack Albers couldn’t help but smile at the performance of Cameron Elwer during Friday’s win over Marion Local.
“He’s an unbelievably great player,” he answered. “His work ethic and his confidence makes him different, and different in a good way. He’s elite in several categories. I know people enjoy watching him play, and I hope they enjoy this last go-round…because you just don’t see what he’s doing, and doing it nearly every night. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Kurt Goettemoeller concluded that it really doesn’t matter if you get beat by a single point, or 30 points. It’s how you bounce back.
As for being unbowed……
“We have a couple of days now to clear our minds, and they beat us in this game last year in Delphos.,” Goettemoeller added. ” And we came back to win eleven in a row. And at the end of the year we got annihilated by Russia and responded to go to the state championship game. I have no doubt our kids are going to respond.”
Up next for St. John…St. Henry, Spencerville, and Versailles. And dog days or not, they’re pretty capable of taking care of themselves.
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