Nothing doing…St. Henry’s Landon Schwartz did his best to get to the rim past Marion Local’s Brayden Mescher during the first half of Friday’s loss to the Flyers. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
As big a surprise as any you’d expect in area Friday basketball, once-defeated Marion Local used its defense and a supportive home environment to hand a discouraging loss to rival St. Henry.
Maria Stein, OH – The popular adage in contemporary basketball is that defense always travels, and if it does you have a better-than-average chance of winning.
But the Marion Local Flyers (13-1, 6-1 in MAC) proved Friday night that sometimes defense stays at home. And when it does, and you have the energy of a packed-out home crowd, the chances of winning are a heckuva’ lot better than average.
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The Flyers’ defense held St. Henry to just 36% shooting, 33 points, and pulled a near-statistical sweep of the 9-4 Redskins (3-3 in MAC) by handing them an unexpected 27-point loss, 60-33. And given that St. Henry actually scored just 2 points for the entire second quarter…it wasn’t that close.
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“Yeah, I was really happy with our defense tonight. Thought it was super,” Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller grinned, post-game. “Look, if you had told me that we would hold St. Henry to just 11 points in the first half I couldn’t have been more pleased with our effort.”
Every aspect of the game was controlled by the sure-to-be #1 seed Flyers come the Division VI tournament draw in two weeks.
The Flyers shot 47% from the floor, and had five players connect from three-point range (7 of 16) for the game. St. Henry had just two shots from behind the arc.
Marion shot 11 of 16 from the foul line, while St. Henry hit just 7 of 14.
Easy baskets early…Kale Ahrens picks up two of his game-high 18 points with an uncontested look in Marion’s 19-point first quarter.
Marion outrebounded St. Henry by ten, 35-25.
And so it went.
The packed house at Marion’s tiny gym, home and visitors alike, sat stunned, unbelieving with the disparity in execution and score. Marion’s defense played perhaps its best game of the season, yes. But St. Henry had a lot of open looks, especially in the first half, that simply didn’t go down. And when shots don’t fall in games of this significance, St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck was want to admit afterwards…that was only the beginning of why they didn’t win.
“Yeah, and I felt that the shots that didn’t go down was because for whatever reasons we didn’t play up to the level that we’re capable of,” Rosenbeck said. “I thought Jack Huelsman was fantastic and his energy was awesome. But we just didn’t have any juice…any pep in our step tonight. Our bench has been the best bench I’ve coached, and it just wasn’t here tonight. What a bizarro game in terms of lack of juice and energy, especially for a big rivalry game.”
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Marion came out with the edge you would have expected, and frankly, the edge with which St. Henry usually plays. The Flyers are averaging just over 13 points in the first quarter this year and Friday they upped that by 50%, leading 19 to 9 after eight minutes.
Everything contested…St. Henry’s Landon Schwartz fights through Marion’s defense for a shot attempt in the first half.
“We got a lot of easy transition baskets early,” said Goettemoeller. “But I thought Brayden (Mescher) did a great job in getting our guys confident and ready. He’s just a great leader for us. And we try to win the easy-basket war. You can’t give up easy baskets, but you’ve got to go get them for yourself. And we got easy baskets early in the game that got us going. And for the most part, we didn’t give up too many tonight.”
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Eric Rosenbeck could not say the same. Shots from close range rolled off the rim. And open shots from mid-range clanked off the rim. But point-blank or jump shots – shots they would normally make – everything was contested heavily by Marion energetic and aggressive defense. Confidence is such a big part of shooting the ball successfully, and when Marion outscored St. Henry by 19-9 in the first eight minutes, the rim literally seemed to shrink for the ‘Skins in the second eight. Marion held them without a field goal, and to just two points…a free throw each by Brayden Heath and Landon Schwartz.
In the meantime St. Henry’s defense was quietly effective against Marion, holding the Flyers to just 9 points for the quarter, but it didn’t matter. St. Henry couldn’t put the ball in the hole and went to the halftime locker room trailing 28-11.
Jack Huelsman was literally the savior for the Redskins in the first half, scoring eight of their nine points in the first quarter, and came out to set a similar tone at the start of the second half. Huelsman scored 7 points for the quarter, but that was negated by Marion’s Brennen Hess, who canned a long three from the corner on his way to 7 points in eight minutes. Kale Ahrens added a three of his own as Marion barely outscored St. Henry 15-13, and upped their lead to 43-24 at the start of the fourth quarter.
St. Henry’s defense held Marion to just 9 points in the third quarter…Landon Schwartz denies the shot attempt of Kale Ahrens.
And the ceiling, at that point, fell in on St. Henry. Marion began raining three pointers – one each by Grant Kremer, Hess, Isaac Moeller, and Luke Everman – accounting for 12 of the Flyers’ concluding total of 17 points for the quarter. St. Henry was no match, despite Charlie Werling kicking in a three-pointer. The ‘Skins managed just 7 for the final eight minutes and the scoreboard closed shop at 60-33.
Kale Ahrens quietly led Marion with 18 points, while Brennen Hess had 14 and Brayden Mescher finished with 13. Grant Kremer had 6 and Isaac Moeller had 5.
Jack Huelsman did what he could do for St. Henry, scoring 15 points, but he didn’t have much help. Landon Schwartz had 6, Max Delzeith had 5, Brayden Heath had 4, and Charlie Werling finished with 3.
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Eric Rosenbeck added that there’s a lot of basketball left, starting with Celina on Saturday night…but his mood was shrouded by mystery over why of all nights the energy and emotion to play harder and compete wasn’t there.
“It wasn’t that our guys weren’t trying,” he added. “We just didn’t have any juice. This was a big game in terms of tournament seeding and everything else. We dug ourselves such a hole…and it just put so much pressure on the defense to be perfect. We just came out so flat. I don’t think our guys saw it coming. I didn’t see it coming. They’re an unbelievable group and they work their tails off, but tonight was just bizarre. I don’t have any reason for it.
Wishing for a shot to fall…but the Redskins suffered through a poor shooting night in Friday’s loss to Marion Local.
“And I give them (Marion) a lot of credit…they really got into us and got us playing a lot of one-on-one. But that being said…the pep in our step just wasn’t there.”
There is a lot of basketball to play, to Rosenbeck’s point, but consistency of effort and the ability to score predictably must have consumed his thinking as he boarded the bus Friday night for the short ride home and an expected restless night. With competitive league games left with Parkway, New Bremen, Versailles and Fort Recovery, and a favorable non-conference schedule, St. Henry cannot afford more such mysterious nights.
For Marion Local, the Flyers come back Saturday with a date at Fort Loramie before concluding their league schedule with Coldwater, Minster, and Versailles the next three weeks.
“We still have room to improve,” said Kurt Goettemoeller before leaving for a less restless Friday evening at home. “The Delphos St. John game showed that we’re not all that great and that we’ve got work to do to get better. We’ve got room to grow, and when you have a game like Delphos sometimes you just have to get rid of it…move on. I go back to the Russia game last year. Learn from it and just flush it.”
And with seven games remaining, one can imagine the possibilities. If defense does travel, Goettemoeller is doing some imagining, himself.
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