Austin Niekamp had two big buckets in the third quarter and finished with 10 points.
Austin Niekamp’s two late free throws secure victory for the Flyers in possibly the deepest district field in the state.
Wapakoneta, OH – Playing in the Wapakoneta High School gym for the 10th time and eighth tournament game in his four-year varsity career, Marion Local senior Austin Niekamp soaked in the moments.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State basketball and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
He didn’t let the nerves of a tight Division VI district final rattle him. He understood what the PA announcer meant before the game when he welcomed fans to this “glorious” event. And it was all that.
Marion Local and Coldwater, MAC rivals on every playing surface, filled almost every seat with their loyal fans. Niekamp loved the noisy tournament atmosphere, he loved that every fan – of both teams – strained their voices.
To Niekamp, a basketball player who doesn’t play football at a football school, the big moments, the loud cheers, the goosebumps, meant everything to him.
“Being in the student section for the football success, you crave that, the winning and having all the fans cheering for you,” he said. “It’s great. It’s awesome.”
With that grateful attitude, Niekamp stepped to the free-throw line with six seconds left and the Flyers up by three points. He’d shot late free throws before in close games. But never in a district final.
Coldwater and Marion Local battled for every rebound and loose ball in a physical district final.
“I went back to 6 a.m. in the gym shooting free throws,” he said. “Just another free throw.”
Would Niekamp hear those cheers he craves?
Yes. He calmly made both free throws for a five-point lead, sending the Flyers to a hang-on-for-dear-life 45-42 victory and into Tuesday’s region semifinals at Vandalia Butler against Miami Valley Christian Academy.
The Flyers inbounded the ball in front of their bench with 16 seconds left. Coldwater, which had rallied from 11 down early in the fourth quarter with harassing defense, went for the steal and hoped the ball would end up in anyone’s hands but Niekamp or junior guard Grant Kremer.
But with six seconds left the Cavaliers couldn’t wait any longer and fouled Niekamp, who, with his 6-foot-8 frame, kept the ball away from swatting hands.
“He’s our guy, so we went to him,” Kremer said. “And when they fouled him, I knew one or two of them at least were going in.”
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Niekamp had to break the Flyers’ late-game trend. They went 1 for 2 on three straight trips to the line and were only 10 of 18 as a team when Niekamp made the final two.
“We’re not a great free-throw shooting team in some spots,” Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. “At least we were getting one as they were making their comeback. It wasn’t as quick a comeback because of that. So we did enough, and you just knew this game was going to come down to this type of game.”
Marion Local’s Brayden Mescher drives for two of his six second-half points.
And it was that type of district tournament with top-seeded Spencerville, Marion Local and Coldwater vying for a single spot in regionals. When the Cavaliers (16-7) got their basketball legs in shape after a long football season and past a difficult December schedule, they reeled of 10 wins in 12 games heading into Friday’s final, including an upset of Spencerville (21-3) in the semifinals. The Flyers (23-2) survived what Goettemoeller called the most difficult district tournament in the state.
“There were three regional quality teams in this district,” Goettemoeller said. “We shouldn’t all be in the same district. We should be able to spread out. I’ll bet Spencerville and Coldwater are better than half the teams that are going to make the regionals. And it’s just a shame. And it doesn’t have to be that way. You just got to hope that people are willing to have some conversations this offseason about it because it’s not right.”
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Coldwater proved Goettemoeller’s point in the fourth quarter with a defensively fueled comeback after the Flyers seemed to be in control.
Marion got a break when Coldwater committed a foul with a few seconds left in the third. Goettemoeller called for a play that brought Kremer off a screen on a sideline inbounds play. Kremer got open and made a 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 30-25 lead.
Grant Kremer makes a 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to push the Flyers’ lead to five.
“Since they fouled it helped us get into that play,” Kremer said. “I don’t know what play we were gonna run if we didn’t get fouled. It may have worked. It may have not.”
That play and other called plays for a couple backdoor layups and Niekamp popping open for two layups off screens were the kind of plays the Flyers needed against Coldwater’s stingy defense.
“We executed almost everything we put in,” Goettemoeller said. “We had to find ways to get some easy baskets because they’re very, very good defensively. They matched up really well with us. We had to find some ways to steal baskets.”
The trend continued early in the fourth as the Flyers built a 39-28 lead with 5:37 left. But Coldwater’s Caleb Schroer answered with a 3-pointer to begin an 11-3 run that sliced the Flyers’ lead to 42-39 with 3:01 left.
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“The heart of our guys, down 11 …” Coldwater coach Nick Fisher said. “Their will to win and what we did defensively, I’m so unbelievably proud of them for that.”
Both teams understood what was needed defensively to slow each other down. Brayden Mescher scored 18 points when Marion won the regular-season matchup 55-48 three weeks ago. The Flyers held him to six this time, but Kremer scored 12, Niekamp 10, Kale Ahrens nine and Ryan Homan eight.
Austin Niekamp (left) and Ryan Homan hold up the district trophy for all to see.
The Flyers’ defensive attention was on point guard and leading scorer Baylen Blockberger, who scored 23 in the win over Spencerville. He was held to 11 on three difficult driving shots, the only clean look he got from the 3-point line and a pair of free throws.
“They were blitzing everything we did, all the ball screen action that we usually run for Bay, they were blitzing it well,” Fisher said. “Bay does a great job of backing out of that blitz and finding people. Early in the game we were hitting some of those shots, but as the game progressed, they kind of rotated pretty good with their help and those shots weren’t as open as maybe they were in that first quarter. That’s a credit to their defense.”
Ahrens was tasked the most with guarding Blockberger. The job he did prevented the Cavaliers from getting in the kind of sync on offense Fisher hoped for.
“Give Kale some credit,” Kremer said. “He put some locks on Blockberger. And the rest of the team played good defense.”
With every defensive stop, every well-executed play to steal a basket and finally two clinching free throws, Niekamp heard the cheers he wanted for his basketball team. And after he held up the trophy to more cheers and waved the net to the crowd, the Flyers went to locker room and loud roars could be heard from behind the closed door.
Then Goettemoeller emerged with a towel and soaking wet.
“That’s a good kind of shower right there,” he said.
Glorious.
Austin Niekamp shows off the district title trophy after his two free throws with six seconds left clinched the victory.
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