Flyers fend off 'Skins

MARIA STEIN - It was the same type of war fans have come to expect when Marion Local and St. Henry square off on the hardwood.

Marion Local simply had the best weapon.

Nate Bruns scored 26 points and surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career as the Flyers held on for a 48-43 victory at the Hangar in a rematch of last year's Division IV district final.

Marion's win avenges a 52-47 loss to St. Henry last week at the Asset Allocation Associates Holiday Classic. The defending MAC champion Flyers improved to 4-2 overall and 2-0 in conference play. The Redskins dropped to 6-2 and 1-1 in MAC play.

"When Marion plays St. Henry, it's going to be a war," Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "They're so well prepared, and I think we did a nice job preparing this week as well. The difference in the game from last Saturday was that we got after them defensively. We got to another level on defense."

Entering the night, Bruns needed 16 points to reach 1,000. Bruns hit the mark with a jump shot in the third quarter, and he continued scoring even though he faced a box-and-1 for most of the second half.

"We went against the box-and-1 all week in practice," Bruns said. "That was a lot of what we repped against, and we just talked about getting motion and trying to get me inside. That's what worked tonight."

Bruns is now No. 7 on Marion's all-time scoring list with 1,010 points. He is 39 points behind Steve "Snake" Hartings. New Bremen Athletic Director Gary Jones holds Marion's all-time mark with 1,365 points.

The first half had five lead changes and one tie, which occurred when it was deadlocked at 9-all to end the first quarter. Marion opened the second quarter on a 4-0 run, with Bruns cashing a jumper and Sam Huelsman scoring off a behind-the-back dish by Matt Rethman. Three-pointers by Andrew Lange and Ben Evers returned the lead to St. Henry at 16-14, but the Redskins just couldn't deal with Bruns, who scored 11 in the half as Marion took a 19-17 lead into the locker room.

Bruns started the second half with a 3. Then St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck called a timeout and employed the box-and-1. Bruns scored nine more points against that defense to end the third.

"He was terrific," Rosenbeck said. "Coffee-shop talk for everyone … in the last 10 years as a coach in the MAC, excluding my guys that I have coached, my five guys would be the two Kahlig boys from Fort Recovery, Geise from Delphos St. John's, Manger from New Bremen and Nate Bruns. The way those guys compete and play stands out. Bruns was terrific. That being said, coach Rosenbeck needs to do a better job of preparing our guys on the finer details. I think they scored the most points we've given up on baseline out of bounds in years, and that's on the coach."

The Redskins were never out of it, though.

They didn't trail by more than five at any point of the third quarter. Ethan Thieman and Jay Knapke combined to make 7 of 8 from the charity stripe for St. Henry, which faced a 31-28 deficit entering the fourth.

But Marion went to the double bonus in the fourth quarter and capitalized. The Flyers made 5 of 7 free throws in the first 3 1/2 minutes and also extended a few possessions with offensive boards. The lead grew to 40-30 with three minutes to play.
  St. Henry halved its deficit to five points by the 1:35 mark. After a series of free throw misses by Marion, Jay Knapke and Ethan Thieman each made a pair to cut the margin to 43-41. However, Max Albers and Huelsman each had key makes from the line in the waning seconds to seal the victory.

"I think our physicality out front wore them down. They weren't making a lot of 3s," Goettemoeller said. "I think some of that was legs - they just didn't have the legs in the fourth quarter. That was kind of the game plan. Give both teams credit. Both teams fought their (butts) off. We're thrilled to win."

"First and foremost, I love our team," Rosenbeck said. "That's the first thing we talked about in the locker room. We've got to stick together and stay together. I just love them. I love how they compete. We didn't have our best night offensively. Our guys could have packed it in, but our guys just did not let that happen. They kept fighting and kept clawing."

Bruns finished 7 of 12 from the field, 3 of 7 from behind the arc and 9 of 14 at the foul line. Huelsman had a career-high 13 points.

Thieman had a team-high 17 for St. Henry. Knapke added eight.

The statisticians didn't log bruises or rug burns racked up Friday, but mostly all players who saw court time will wake up feeling a little rough.

"That was a physical game," Bruns said. "We were physical. They were physical. I'll definitely be sore tomorrow."