High-scorer Avae Unrast picks up a loose ball off a Russia turnover to convert two late points in Tuesday’s 37-31 Flyer win. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
In a game marred by poor shooting, turnovers, and lapses in scoring, Marion Local somehow found enough for a not-so-pretty win over Russia.
Russia, OH – Marion Local coach Beth Streib shook her head afterwards, and stated, “We have to be better than that.” This following a ragged 37-31 win Tuesday night over host Russia on the Raiders’ beautiful new Dave Borchers Court.
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17-2 Marion, a #1 seed out of Sunday’s OHSAA tournament drawing, visibly struggled over the course of 32 minutes, never finding a rhythm on offense, suffering through turnovers and missed shots at the rim, looking like anything but a #1 seed.
But they somehow fared better than 12-8 Russia, a #6 seed when they open tourney in two weeks on February 15. Mike Bashore’s Raiders shot a miserable percentage from the floor, likewise suffered from turnovers, and at one stretch went seven minutes without scoring at all.
Tied 11-11 midway through the second quarter, Marion somehow found a 6-0 scoring run amongst the turnovers and bodies spilled on the court, and limped to the halftime dressing room with an 18-12 lead.
Russia, a team that’s competed on a consistent basis throughout the year, shot just 22% for the first half, and 24% through the first three quarters…and saw Marion Local come out in the third quarter and boost their margin to as much as 11 points.
The Raiders cut the deficit to six points, twice, and closed to within six in the final minute, thanks to a 7-point finish by junior Claudia Hoehne. But Marion’s senior and leading scorer Avae Unrast trumped those points with 7 points of her own in the second half, and a game-high 14, to further frustrate Russia as the clocked clicked down on an ugly six-point Flyer win…the same 6 points that had haunted Russia, throughout.
Marion’s Chloe Ronnebaum (in Blue) and Russia’s Aryana Cordonnier fight for possession of the basketball.
The Raiders finished having shot 31% for the game, while Marion Local managed an only slightly better 39%.
Unrast led all scorers with 14 points for the Flyers, while Hoehne and teammate Addison Shappie each scored 7 to lead the Raiders.
“Some nights are like that,” Streib said on her way to the bus and a hoped-for smoother trip home.
The two teams had a combined 30 turnovers for the game.
“We had some good spurts, offensively,” she added. “But…obviously we could be more consistent.”
The Flyers found themselves standing on offense a lot, and Streib’s voice was raspy following the game for her continually shouting “motion”, hoping to get her team to put one foot in front of the other.
“Now defensively I thought we did a great job because we wanted to take them out of their game a little, and they really didn’t get much in the way of points until the end there in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t the prettiest of games, I admit. But we’ll take a win on the road most any night.”
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But with twenty games now in the books, there would be some concern over the fact of consistency on offense and with ball-handling from a #1 seed, and focus on something as important as moving around to free yourself for open shots this close to the tournament.
“We’ve got two more games and we’ve got to go back and work to get better for our game on Thursday and a game on Saturday,” Streib admitted.
Russia’s pressure helped keep Marion out of any kind of rhythm and flow.
“And Russia’s not a bad team by any means. There’s just a lot of game situational things that we have to work on. We capable of running offense and taking 40 seconds off the clock, but we have too many stupid turnovers. We need to take advantage of that more.
“At one point at the end we just looked at Avae and told her she needed to attack the rim more. And we did attack, and we were able to kick the ball out more, and we got a big three-point shot from Kiley (Schoenlein).”
And to her point, credit Russia’s pressure for causing some of the mistakes and turnovers. That’s why teams press.
“But we’ve got to be sharper and make fewer mistakes,” said Streib.
And she seemed pretty sure of herself, still shaking her head.
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