Bulldogs rally to beat Flyers

CELINA - Late in the third quarter, Marion Local had Celina on the ropes, leading by 11 points and looking to go for the coup de grâce.

The Bulldogs battled back through the fourth quarter and took the lead for good with 35 seconds left in a 60-56 win over the state-ranked Flyers in Monday night action at the Fieldhouse.

"I told the guys after the third quarter 'When times are good, everything's good. When times are tough, that's when you find out what you're made of.' " Celina coach Chris Bihn said. "I thought our guys found out a lot tonight and did a nice job of coming back."

"Give Celina a lot of credit. Ryan Hoyng is a great player and they are very well coached," Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "We are not mentally tough right now. We don't play hard for 32 minutes. When you have a team on the ropes multiple times like we did tonight and just mentally let up, we aren't mentally tough enough and that's a reflection on me and on what we're doing."

After a first half of back-and-forth play, the Flyers, who were ranked eighth in the newest Associated Press poll in Division IV, tried to pull away. Ryan Bruns, held scoreless in the first half, put Marion into the lead at 26-25. Dustin Rethman followed with a hoop-and-harm three-point play to push the lead to 29-25. Celina worked its way back to a one-point deficit at 31-30 with 4:55 left on a Ryan Hoyng three-pointer, but the Flyers went on an 11-3 run as Rethman, Tyler Mescher, Dustin Seitz and Cole Griesdorn all scored during the run.

Eric Moeder stopped the run with a three-pointer with 42 seconds left and then Ryan Hoyng closed out the third quarter with a driving bucket to cut Celina's deficit to 44-38.  

The Bulldogs continued the momentum into the final period. Hoyng scored the first four Celina points followed by a three-pointer from Jacob Stolly to make it 46-45 Marion with 4 1/2 minutes to play. Twenty seconds later, Grant Laffin scored to put Celina in front 47-46 and prompted a Flyers timeout.

"We were able to pressure, create some turnovers and got a couple layups," Bihn said. "That got the offense rolling."

The teams traded the lead over the next 90 seconds. Bruns' and Griesdorn's buckets were countered by a Logan Delong bucket and a Moeder trey that put the Bulldogs up 52-50 with 2:42 to go. After a Flyer missed basket, Ryan Hoyng scored to push it to 54-50. A Caleb Hoyng free throw made it 55-50 before Rethman knocked down a three-pointer to cut it to 55-53.

After trading scoreless possessions, Luke Knapke drove in and scored while getting fouled with 50.7 seconds left and then made the free throw to put the Flyers in front 56-55. Ryan Hoyng took control, getting down on the low post and bullying his way in for a hoop-and-harm three-pointer with 35.7 seconds left to put the Bulldogs into the lead to stay at 58-56. Marion had two chances to tie or take the lead, but missed both shots. Caleb Hoyng hit a pair of free throws with 1.9 seconds left to ice the game.

"I told the guys we have three weeks to figure this out," Goettemoeller. "Everybody is touting how good we are and right now we're not tough enough to advance very far in the tournament."

Ryan Hoyng finished with 22 points for the Bulldogs. Laffin added eight points.

Rethman led Marion Local with 14 points and Griesdorn scored 11. Knapke scored 10, but was held to just three points in the second half. Bruns finished with six, all in the second half.

"What we tried to do with (Bruns and Knapke) is not let them establish position down inside," Bihn said. "I thought our kids did a nice job beating them to the spot and forcing them to catch it a little deeper than what they wanted. ... I felt we made them work for every point they got."

Both teams return to league play on Friday. Celina hosts Kenton while Marion hosts Parkway.