Russia’s Vince Borchers attacks the rim en route to the Raiders’ win over Marion Local and a perfect 22-0 season. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie McMaken Wright)
Russia’s suffocating defense propelled the final leg of an undefeated season. The Raiders left no doubt with a 30-4 run spanning the majority of the second and third quarters.
Russia, Oh – How often do you say the word perfect? And how often do you really mean it? Well here’s something you can say it and mean it about:
Alan Brads is a contributing columnist and writes sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.
The 22-0 Russia Raiders.
Russia added an exclamation mark to their perfect season by crushing Marion Local 55-29.
What did it take to get to 22-0?
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“Hard work and dedication,” senior Braylon Cordonnier said. “It all starts in practice.”
“Perseverance,” Coach Spencer Cordonnier said. “A lotta hard work from these guys, a lot of nights in the gym, and me raising hell at ‘em since they were six or seven years old.”
“Coming in every day, hard work, and dedication.” senior Dominic Francis said. “It’s a grind, it’s a long season.”
Sensing a theme? All that hard work resulted in complete impose-your-will dominance of a 20-1 Marion Local team in front of their largest home crowd of the season.
The Raiders are now one of three members of the 2024-25 Perfection Club. Miami Trace and Columbus Academy capped perfect seasons on Friday night, and Patrick Henry can become the fourth and final member with a win against Liberty Benton (20-1) on Saturday.
Russia’s Dominic Francis smothers Flyer Grant Kremer.
Of the four, Russia boasts the most dominant season as the only team to win every game by double digits.
The swarming Raiders took control with a 15-0 run in the second quarter, and slammed the door shut by allowing two points in the third quarter.
“We were just really locked in defensively,” Spencer Cordonnier said. “It’s just guys coming together. They sat down, they guarded, and they communicated. These guys are all about sharing the basketball, taking care of it, and defending.”
The Russia defense coming to play shouldn’t surprise anyone, but even so, its thorough dismantling of a talented offense will surely turn a few heads among Division VII tournament teams.
The thrashing was severe enough to allow the curtain call for Russia’s seniors to commence with four minutes still to play. It was a good thing too, it took a while to get through 11 seniors, all of whom got a standing ovation.
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“A lot of credit goes to those guys who might not get to play as much,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “They might not realize the impact they have, but they’re the ones that push us to be better.”
The defense instigated Russia’s monstrous run in the middle of the game. Steals and efficient rebounding turned into points in bunches. Marion got a clean layup seven seconds into the game, and that was the last easy bucket they scored.
Braylon Cordonnier(24) and Zeb Schulze(20) puts the clamps on Marion’s Grant Kramer.
Russia locked its paint down like a maximum security prison, and the 3-ball wouldn’t fall for any of the Flyers. The pick and roll that Marion loves to run with Austin Niekamp didn’t move the needle an inch. Braylon Cordonnier spent his evening defending Niekamp.
“He’s a big kid and a great player,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “He’s very skilled down low and on the perimeter.”
True enough, but it posed little threat to the Raiders, who held Niekamp to an inefficient, albeit team-leading, 12 points.
Dominic Francis led all scorers with 16, and fellow Raiders Cordonnier and Vince Borchers added 13 and 10 respectively.
A few days from now, most fans will forget that Marion Local actually led 10-9 after a quarter. The Flyers made a few impossible shots in the lane that boosted them to an early lead, but the wild finishes in traffic were unsustainable.
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Marion took a 13-11 lead with six minutes left in the half, then went colder than a popsicle in a blizzard. Russia’s defense harassed the ball handlers on the perimeter and stonewalled attempts to get the ball to the block. Turnovers were bountiful and capitalized on quickly.
“The main thing during the timeout after the first quarter was coach told us to look around,” Francis said. “He said to look at the atmosphere, at the people cheering for us. It was our last game in this gym so he told us to leave it all out there, and we did.”
Ryan Homan looks for one of his teammates while Ben York defends.
From that six-minute mark to the end of the third quarter (14 minutes for the mathematically disinclined) Russia allowed four points. For those looking ahead to March Madness, Russia’s 30-4 run in that span could be compared to UCONN’s 30-0 against Illinois in the Elite 8 last year.
Marion Local, like Illinois, is a great team that just happened to play a superior team that went nuclear. There was nothing to be done.
“For us to have a chance in this game we had to stay close,” Marion Coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. “Once they got an eight or ten-point lead they were able to do some things that we couldn’t contain. They’re just a tremendous basketball team. They’ve been embarrassing teams all year.”
Vince Borchers connected with Dominic Francis for the exclamation mark within the exclamation mark. In the fourth quarter, a turnover became a fast break and Francis passed to Borchers for a give-and-go. Borchers lobbed it up and Francis threw down a dunk to send the fans into a final frenzy.
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“This was probably the best atmosphere we played in all year,” Braylon Cordonnier said. “The community was great.”
The 11 seniors have accomplished nearly everything. Conference titles, undefeated in conference, and now a perfect regular season. Only one thing remains … the elusive state title.
Braylon Cordonnier bats away an attempted Flyer shot attempt.
With the pesky Richmond Heights Spartans realigned out of Russia’s division, the second-ranked Raiders have new obstacles on the path to UD Arena.
#1 ranked Delphos St. John’s looms large, but they won’t match up until the state semifinal if they each survive that long. Russia’s biggest threats within the region are Lehman Catholic, Catholic Central, and Botkins, none of which could play the Raiders until the regional final. A generally favorable tournament draw makes looking ahead the easy thing to do, but Coach Cordonnier won’t let his team think that way if he can help it.
“It’s respect all, fear none. Doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re not gonna prepare for anyone that’s two weeks away. We’re gonna come back in on Tuesday and prepare for Ansonia on Friday. Respect all, fear none. We’ll get the report put together for that game and get locked in on them. You don’t go anywhere until you move on to the next one.”
Vince Borchers lobs the ball to teammate Dominic Francis…
Marion Local’s season is far from derailed. Those players and coaches knew the kind of team they were running into tonight, and probably got the best two quarters Russia has played all season in the second and third.
“We have nothing to hang our heads about,” Goettemoeller said. “We’re 20-2. But I just told the kids we’re 0-0 now. We just gotta forget about this game, because I don’t think we’re gonna see a team as good as Russia during our tournament.”
Can the Flyers buy into that mindset and pick themselves up in time for a tournament run?
They play Harrod Allen East on Friday, February 21, and then with a win would see a familiar foe, the winner of St. Henry and New Bremen.
Brutally, the #2 state-ranked Flyers will likely bump back into the #1 Spencerville Bearcats in the district final.
Marion Local beat Spencerville earlier this week in Maria Stein. Could it happen again on a neutral court? Yes. Will it happen? Maybe. Wouldn’t be any fun if we knew, would it?
… Who slams down an alley oop that raised the roof in a packed house.
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