Grant Kremer connects on one of his five three-pointers in Marion’s 53-34 Saturday win over Fort Loramie. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie McMaken Daniel)
Senior shooter Grant Kremer found his stroke for a quintet of three-point bombs, and Marion Local blew out Fort Loramie with a third quarter sprint to the finish for their fifteenth win, 53-34.
Fort Loramie, OH – For sixteen minutes the Fort Loramie Redskins played Division VI #1 Marion Local Saturday night like the St. Henry Redskins meant to play Marion twenty four hours earlier, the night before.
Loramie took care of the ball, was patient to play defense, took high percentage shots and trailed the 15-1 Flyers by a single point at halftime, 22-21. Which was an outlier for the fact that Marion was the bigger and more physical of the two, the more experienced, and the more tested. But it didn’t seem to matter to Mitch Westerheide’s Redskins (7-10).
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Then, after ten minutes of halftime soul-searching with coach Kurt Goettemoeller, Marion came out and promptly blew out Loramie with a 21-5 run that saw senior sharpshooter Grant Kremer conclude one of the more efficient shooting nights of his Marion career.
Goetteomoeller’s Flyers led 43-26 by the end of the quarter, and then cruised to their fifteenth win of the season 53-34, looking every bit like a team that when it plays with confidence and swag is capable of running the table in Division VI basketball between now and the end of March.
Like a team, in fact, that’s a better version of itself from a year ago when the Flyers finished runner-up to Monroe Central in the D-VI title game. More about that in a minute.
But they didn’t look the part in the first half against Loramie. Coming off a 27-point thumping of St. Henry the night before, Marion took the floor Saturday looking like a team that might have had an emotional hangover after a critical win over their conference rival.
“I give Loramie a lot of credit because they always play tough when we come over here,” said Goettemoeller, afterwards. “They were running forty seconds of offense on a bigger floor and they were hard to guard. Mitch had them well prepared, and so when we went to the locker room I told them, challenged them…that they were playing hard, but they were also playing at about a 7 or 8 level. And do we have another level in us…both ends of the court? And they all agreed that we did. And we proved it in the third quarter.”
Loramie’s Landen Drees attacks the rim and got a split lip for his trouble. Drees finished with a team-high 11 points.
They proved it by turning up the intensity, the aggression on defense, and the physicality on both ends that a trio of officials from southern Ohio seemed to favor – let them play. Nothing wrong with it, necessarily, because by now everyone who wears shorts and sneakers knows that when you play Marion Local, or any MAC team, you’re liable to come home bruised and with a split lip, which Loramie’s Landen Drees suffered at the outset of the third quarter.
But better news than 21 to 5 was the re-emergence of three-point specialist Grant Kremer, whose sights had been ever-so-slightly off during the month of January. “I’m not shooting it like I did last year,” Kremer said earlier in the month after the Flyers’ loss to Delphos St. John. No one really knows the difference between being slightly off and slightly on as a shooter. But those with the most experience say that it usually comes down to a matter of confidence and the rhythm with which you catch and shoot the ball…as in one fluid motion.
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Kremer had it Saturday night, hitting his first shot of the night early in the first quarter, and then followed with a pair of back-to-back bombs in the second quarter that helped Marion overcome a five-point deficit and leave the court with the 22-21 halftime lead.
“When the first one went in I felt pretty good,” said Kremer, who would rather shoot the ball, than talk about shooting the ball.
Marion Local’s Brayden Mescher splits a pair of defenders for two of his 13 points against Loramie.
“That boosted my confidence, had a couple more go in before the half, and the last one in the third quarter really felt good. They helped to get the team going. We’re a different team this year and I think a lot of it was Austin (Niekamp) last year and when people focused on him it got me more open shots. This year Brayden has taken some of the attention away, and that’s let me knock a few down when I get the chance.
“Give them credit to tonight. They were going to pack it in on us and when we hit a few that spread ’em out more and opened some driving lanes. That’s how we got the big run. We missed some opportunities in the first half and we were able to get out and run in the third quarter.”
To his point, it is a different Marion team from last year’s state runners-up, despite having Kremer, Mescher and Kale Ahrens returning. Gone is 6’9″ Austin Niekamp, that’s true. But returning is a more experienced, stronger, athletic version that’s dependable off the bench and capable of attacking the rim with multiple players. When that fails, Kremer, Mescher, and Luke Everman are capable outside shooting threats.
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“We are different,” agrees Goettemoeller. “The three starters we have back are better players because they’re older, stronger, and more experienced. You lose a 6’9″ player like Austin Niekamp who’s skilled and can contest shots at the rim, but now we’re bringing Brennen Hess (6’6”) along as a sophomore this year. He’s playing well for us and had a whale of a game last night against St. Henry. He’s probably more athletic than Austin and he had six or seven blocked shots last night. But what you want from young guys is consistency, and the ability to do it in every game, and when you have younger players they’re not going to be as consistent.
Brennen Hess is the 6’6″ sophomore who’s stepped into the graduated Austin Niekamp’s shoes…and is delivering.
“But we need to get better, and we lost a couple of days of practice this week. And I crave full weeks of practice. So next week we’ll have a full week and I’ve challenged the kids to keep getting better, to keep climbing. Because there’s a lot of good teams in Division VI Northwest District, and if we don’t get better it’s going to be a struggle to go anywhere.”
Mescher has played with that consistency that he speaks of, averaging in double figures because he can shoot from the perimeter and he gets to the rim and the foul line.
But Saturday it was Kremer who led all scorers with his five threes and 15 points…while Kale Ahrens and Mescher each chipped in 13 points.
You held your breath for that kind of production last year, and if they do continue to climb with their defense and scoring, you play with more edge knowing from whence the points are going to come.
At least that’s how it is on paper. They’ve got six more regular season games to hone that edge…and do what they can to get Grant Kremer those open looks.
And all Kremer has to do is catch it and shoot. Rhythm!
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