Marion Local’s Austin Heitkamp battles for the opening tip against Colonel Crawford’s John DeGray. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright)
Marion Local advanced to the state title game with a 52-38 win over Colonel Crawford. Austin Niekamp won a stellar big-man battle, and Kale Ahrens locked down star scorer Brayden Holt.
Bowling Green, Ohio – Not much beats watching your bully get bullied. The many teams Colonel Crawford kicked out of the way this season must’ve enjoyed Marion Local out-muscling the Eagles.
Alan Brads writes OHSAA sports and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Marion Local leveraged that toughness, plus the biological gift of length, to rumble through Colonel Crawford 52-38 in the state semifinals at BGSU’s Stroh Center.
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The Flyers (25-2) will play Monroe Central for the state title in UD arena at 2 p.m. on Saturday, March 22nd.
Senior Austin Niekamp had the most physically taxing assignment of anyone. He guarded Colonel Crawford’s Payne Degray, 6’5” with linebacker strength. He does more than his fair share of bullying.
The low post duel enthralled the 3100+ in attendance. Degray prevailed in the first half with his crafty post moves, but Niekamp bested him in the second half, blocking three shots and taking a charge.
Brayden Mescher did a little bit of everything for Marion Local with 11 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.
“He was an ox,” Niekamp said. “He was big. But you just keep battling. In the first half I was super tight on him, but the coaches told me to give him a step, which just gave me room to operate.”
In an age where most kids want to shoot like Steph and dribble like Kyrie, it was a gem of a showdown in the low post. Both coaches had confidence in their big man on defense, so rarely sent the double team. Degray moves with the deliberateness of a chess grandmaster, pouncing on the slightest mistakes, and often spinning around Niekamp on the way to 15 points. Niekamp relied on his rebounding and 6/6 free throw shooting to score 18. Each led their teams in points.
“I was able to get around him and score a few buckets,” Degray said. “But that length obviously altered some of my shots.”
Marion controlled the rebounding battle 31-20 with a creative strategy. Niekamp seldom used his 6’8” frame to chase after defensive rebounds. Rather, he sealed off Degray and relied on the tenacity and length of the other four Flyers to come down with the basketball. They usually held up their end of the bargain.
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Goettemoeller also entrusted sophomore Kale Ahrens with another monumental task: defending Northwest District player of the year Brayden Holt.
Holt averages 18 points per game by wiggling free from his defender off the dribble and knocking down jumpers. But Ahrens deprived him his usual space to pull the trigger from, forcing Holt to shoot over long outstretched arms.
Ryan Homan helped the Flyers start fast with two 3-pointers in the first quarter.
“Kale did a tremendous job,” Goettemoeller said. “He’s very long … and we just don’t want kids to shoot threes on us, especially [Holt], and he didn’t get many threes up tonight. Most coaches dream about shooters; I dream about long wing defenders. We got him, and we got him for another two years.”
Trusting Ahrens and Niekamp to handle business on their own gave the rest of the Marion defense freedom to mow their own lawns.
Beside Degray and Holt, only one Eagle scored, John Degray with 10.
Normally Colonel Crawford can count on a few threes finding nylon, but Marion never lets those shots go up easily.
The Eagles only shot nine threes and didn’t connect until there were three minutes left in the game, and the Flyers led by 13.
The Flyers hit 16/19 free throws, more than a notch or two above their regular season clip of 60.5%. As an added bonus, they only gave up six FT attempts.
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“We were a rotten free throw shooting team for most of the year,” Goettemoeller said. “But when the chips have been down, we’ve done it.”
The common thought that tired teams foul proved true in the second half. Four Eagles played all 32 minutes.
But before they even had time to lose their breath, they found themselves trailing Marion 6-0. After scoring in the fourth quarter of the regional finals, Ryan Homan picked up where he left off, converting an and-1, then draining a three for the first six points of the game.
Marion Local’s Kale Ahrens (24) and Brennan Hess battle Colonel Crawford’s Payne DeGray for a rebound.
The Flyers raced to a 17-7 first quarter lead by collecting 10 of the first 11 available rebounds.
“The honest truth is we’ve really played from ahead almost all year,” Goettemoeller said. “I can’t remember trailing in many games after the first quarter … To gain that early lead was pretty important.”
A drought struck the Flyer offense in the second quarter, and Degray found his rhythm. The lead dropped as low as four, and settled to 25-18 at the half.
Like the first quarter all over again, Marion blasted off to a 6-0 run in the first 1:35 of the third quarter. Degray’s bully ball lost its punch as Niekamp made the adjustment to give him a step, but another post-run drought prevented the Flyers from pulling away, and they settled for an uneasy 33-26 upper hand going to the fourth.
The lead again wavered as low as five. But halfway through the fourth, Niekamp sunk a three, then Brayden Mescher zipped a pass through traffic to Ahrens to bump the lead back to 13 for the first time since the early third quarter.
From there it was free throw shooting. Marion’s Achilles heel looked more like a strength. Niekamp, Kremer and Mescher combined to shoot 8/10 from the nail to close the game.
And with that, Colonel Crawford’s first-ever state appearance ended at the hands of the biggest bully on the D-VI playground.
The Marion Local bench gets creative with their celebration as the game clock ticks down.
“These kids made history at Colonel Crawford,” Head Coach David Sheldon said. “I’m proud of them. This was just a special group.”
The Eagles went 103 days without losing after dropping their season opener.
Now comes an eight-day wait. It’ll feel much longer to the players waiting for their trip down I-75 to UD Arena, conveniently already decked with the word “Flyers.”
Fifty years after the Flyers first state title in ‘75, they’ll play for their fourth. But when the ball goes up for tipoff on Saturday, none of those titles mean a thing. The best championship is always the next one.
Austin Heitkamp looks for an outlet after getting a rebound in front of Payne DeGray.
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