Shooting woes ground Flyers in title game

KETTERING - In order to win in basketball, you've got to make shots. It's as simple as that.

Freezing cold shooting in the second half by Marion Local halted its bid to reach to state tournament as Tri-Village ended the Flyers' season for the second year in a row in the Division IV regional final with a 47-39 loss at Trent Arena in Kettering.

Leading 22-16 at halftime, the Flyers simply weren't themselves in the second half, making 2-of-22 field goal attempts, allowing the top-ranked Patriots to pull away by outscoring Marion 31-17.

"It certainly wasn't their defense," explained Marion Local Kurt Goettemoeller on the shooting woes. "They had a gameplan and they had the same gameplan last year. I'm not going to tell my kids not to shoot it. They were wide open and they are good shooters. If we just hit one or two of those in the third quarter, instead of being down, we're maybe up a few points and the whole complexion of the game changes.

"We had to start chasing them in the fourth quarter when we were down. Give them credit. They're well-coached. They're 28-0 for a reason."

Tri-Village led 29-27 after the third quarter and bumped its lead to four early on in the fourth. Damion Cook and Colton Linkous scored 16 of the Patriots' 18 points in the final quarter. Luke Knapke had a chance to cut the game to one possession but missed two foul shots with 4:40 left. Fellow Flyer big man Ryan Bruns fouled out with six points at the 4:03 mark of the quarter when he whistled for a push going after a rebound. Soon after, Cook scored to put Tri-Village up 34-27 - its largest lead to that point.

Cole Griesdorn reduced the deficit to 36-32 with a three-pointer a minute later. It was Marion's only field goal of the fourth. Cook got loose for a bucket and point guard Tyler VanWinkle found Gavin Richards for a layup to extend the lead to eight with 2:20 remaining. Marion had lead down to five with 30 seconds left and had a chance to make it a one-possession game but turned the ball over.

"They're a very difficult team to beat once you get down late in the game. They handle the ball so well," Goettemoeller said. "Once they got the lead, I knew we were in a little trouble. We kept fighting. I'm very proud of our seniors. It just wasn't meant to be."

Bruns and Knapke scored Marion's first two baskets of the game on offensive rebounds. A Collin Mescher three-pointer made it 7-4 with 3:15 to play. Moments later, Bruns collected the rebound and scored again to put Marion in front by five, a lead that was chopped to 9-6 at the end of one.

A Dustin Seitz trey put Marion Local up 14-10 midway through the second. Bruns blocked a threre-point attempt by Cook, chased the ball down in the backcourt and spiked down a two-handed jam to put the Flyers in front 16-13 before Tyler VanWinkle buried a triple to knot the score. Dustin Rethman connected on a pair of triples before half and the Flyers entered the break in front 22-16.

The Patriots tied the game up at 22-all on a 6-0 run to open the third period and the teams exchanged leads multiple times before Tri-Village broke a 27-all tie with a 7-0 run spanning from the third into the early stages of the fourth.

"We had a six-point lead at half and I felt really good," Goettemoeller said. "They were giving us the three-point shot and we're a good three-point shooting basketball team. We just flat out didn't shoot the ball well tonight and that allowed them to get back in the game."

Cook had a game-high 17 points, Mason McCabe netted 10 and Linkous scored five of his seven in the fourth quarter.

Rethman led the Flyers with nine points and Knapke added eight points to go with eight rebounds.

Tri-Village finished 16-of-38 from the floor compared with Marion Local's 10-of-48, including 6-of-28 from deep. The Patriots advance to play New Philadelphia Tuscarawas Central Catholic on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Columbus.

The Flyers finish the season with a record of 21-5 and will lose several seniors who were key members of one MAC title team and two deep postseason runs.

"This senior class, I love those guys. They're wonderful kids," Goettemoeller said. "I've had them since their freshman year (Goettemoeller's first as head coach) and it's going to be a weird feeling not to see those guys in the gym.

"They've given so much to this program. I'm so proud of them. They got us to two straight regional finals. I just told them 'Hey, life is not fair. You're going to go through things in life harder than this. It's just part of life. You've got to go through it.' "