Marion Local’s 6’9″ Jack Knapke was a beast in the paint, scoring a game-high 22 points in the Flyers’ win over St. Henry. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
A great crowd saw the expected, and the unexpected Tuesday at Wapakoneta, as #1 LCC swept New Bremen from the tournament…and Marion Local proved to be St. Henry’s nemesis, knocking out the #2 seed.
Wapakoneta, OH – Lima Central Catholic coach Sean Powell and Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller both know that in March you have to play the game and take your chances.
Do it, and the sky’s the limit. Tournament basketball is that much of a crapshoot.
If you don’t…well, you got no shot. And both having won past Division IV titles at Botkins and Marion Local respectively, Powell and Goettemoeller understand that David has beaten Goliath along the way…so never, ever, take anything for granted.
And that’s what LCC did, having little trouble with New Bremen Tuesday in the Division IV district semi-finals at Wapakoneta. The Thunderbirds opened up an early lead, and maintained a 12 to 15-point advantage throughout the second half.
LCC’s Willie Foster skies to challenge the shot attempt of New Bremen’s Aaron Thieman in Tuesday’s Dist. IV semi-final at Wapakoneta.
Simply put, LCC was as good as seeded (#1), quicker, more athletic, and simply better. Jordan Priddy led them with 18 points, most coming from wide-open three-pointers from the corner and wing when New Bremen defenders seemed to lose track of him. LCC improved to 23-2 on the season.
New Bremen, while trailing throughout, fought back repeatedly by making enough big shots to keep them close enough to maintain hope. But in the end, Jackson Lennartz led the Cardinals with 15 points, Aaron Thieman had 14, and Hayden Zeller finished with 12 as the Cardinals ended their year with an 11-14 record.
The night’s second game supplied more drama, and expectation, as #7 seed Marion Local (12-13) jumped out to an early 16-9 lead in the first quarter, and from that point on fought off St. Henry’s attempt to close the gap, to flummox Marion’s inexperienced backcourt with full-court pressure, and in the end…a desperate rush to make shots. St. Henry (18-6), one of the truly mercurial shooting teams in the area, would end up shooting just 28% for the night, and drop from the tournament in a surprise 51-41 loss.
“These were the kind of games we were blowing earlier in the year,” said Kurt Goettemoeller, later. “At the beginning of the year we gave up 75 points to this team, we switched to zone defense and had to get better playing the zone through January and February, and then we began to get leads on teams. But we were blowing those leads. So then the other night we held a lead against Minster, and tonight we held a lead, so we’re doing a good job here by just learning how to handle pressure.”
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At their best Marion has always been a hard-nosed man-to-man defense, but switched to zone earlier in the year because in Goettemoeller’s words, “man defense simply didn’t fit our personality as a team.” Tuesday night it so badly disrupted St. Henry’s personality as an offense that the Redskins shot 28% from the floor and watched helplessly as one shot after another simply rimmed out or caromed off and into the hands of a convenient Marion rebounder.
St. Henry’s Luke Beyke attempts the block the shot attempt of Marion’s Austin Niekamp.
Marion jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, and really never looked back, relying on the kind of physical basketball that they’re known for from the past – more consistent than they’d been during the course of a 10-12 regular season.
And at their best, Marion is known, offensively, for having a pair of 6’9″ low post players capable of scoring from inside (Jack Knapke) and outside (Austin Niekamp). Niekamp would score 12 Tuesday, primarily from mid-range. But Knapke proved to be a wrecking ball at the rim, suddenly energized as he caught the ball in the post and had little resistance as he wheeled and went to the hoop.
“Jack has been a little injured, he wasn’t there all year, but when the chips are down Jack’s been able to take it right at the other team’s post player,” said Goettelmoeller. “Tonight they didn’t have anyone in the post, and we said early that we were going to make it a simple game. We’re not getting cute. We’re going to get the ball to Jack and let him make some hay. We let everyone else feed off of him.”
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Knapke would end up scoring a game-high 22 points and helped Marion extend their halftime lead to 27-19.
St. Henry, with coach Eric Rosenbeck, has always been a good team for adjustments, but halftime offered them no help as they came out in the second half and continued to struggle with making shots. The Redskins did scored 14 points in the third quarter (their best) off random three-pointers by Logan Link and Evan Bowers, but Marion was able to match on their end as Knapke grew increasingly confident in the low post, scoring a third of his 22 points in the quarter.
St. Henry’s Logan Link (in white) steals the dribble from Marion’s Daniel Everman during the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s Div. IV district semi-final at Wapakoneta.
Rosenbeck went to his bread and butter, the full-court pressure, and it did enough to give St. Henry the crack it needed. Marion’s guards struggled a bit, suffered some bad turnovers, and St. Henry would make enough shots to get the lead down from as high as 13 points to 5. Marion still led 41-33 at the end of three, but there was concern on how much more pressure, and how long they could endure.
St. Henry began to take on fouls with their pressure, sending Marion to the line early in both the third and fourth quarters.
But the Flyers missed golden opportunities to put the game out of reach by missing key free throws. Marion shot 10 of 20 from the line in the final minutes, and at one point guard Mitchell Ranley misfired on successive trips, giving St. Henry hope on the other end. A Logan Link three-pointer at 3:10 of the fourth quarter cut the Marion lead to five points, 43-38.
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But they couldn’t make enough shots to get closer. And to Marion’s credit, they forced St. Henry to chase, foul, and they hit enough from the line (16 of 26 for the game) to keep the Redskins at bay. Grant Kremer, on a drive to the rim, found Knapke on the baseline, hit him in mid-stride, and Knapke further fueled the Flyers with a thunderous dunk to push the lead back to eight points.
“It’s my last year and I wanted to give it all I had,” said Knapke later, talking about the closing moments of the game. “They beat us twice this year, but tonight we won the one that counted. They won the battles, but we won the war.”
Marion’s Jack Knapke high fives the bench after the Flyers’ 51-41 district win over St. Henry.
Kyle Otte, the veteran and multiple champion in football, hit a key pair of foul shots to further steady things as the ticking clock became as big an opponent to St. Henry as Marion Local. And as time ran out Goettemoeller exhaled, Knapke high-fived the bench, and Marion had survived to meet LCC Friday in the district final.
Three weeks ago any mention of Marion Local pulling it together in a manner such as to win a district title would have seemed improbable. Knapke, hampered by knee injuries throughout the year, was far from the player he showed to be on Tuesday.”
“But he looked pretty healthy tonight,” said Eric Rosenbeck quietly as he stood outside his locker room, waiting for the bus ride home.
And history being what it’s been for Marion basketball, Friday’s matchup will again be a contrast in styles, and not unlike that matchup in 2018 when Cornerstone Christian was all but conceded the Division IV title before being upset by Marion in the final game.
“It’ll be a tough matchup,” promised Goettemoeller. “They’re a tremendous team and they’ve only got two losses for a reason. They’re good offensively, they’re smart defensively, and they’ve got a guy (Sean Powell) who’s won a state championship. They know how to win and it’ll be a fun matchup.
“We’ll give them the best we can.”
And no doubt, plenty of Jack Knapke!
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