Clutch Again

ST. HENRY - From the first possession of the game, when Marion Local's Alex Eyink drained a shot for the Flyers, St Henry was playing catch-up.

It took 29 minutes, but the Redskins were finally able to flip the script.

Bennett Gels hit a pair of free throws to put St. Henry ahead with 2:24 left in the fourth, then sunk a game-winning layup from underneath the net with five seconds remaining in regulation to give the Redskins a 38-36 win over the Flyers in Midwest Athletic Conference action on Friday night.

"Absolute meat-grinder, but it was pretty much exactly what I expected," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "Two very, very even teams. They know us like the back of their hand, we know them like the back of ours. I'm just really proud of our guys to make the last play."

After Gels, who scored the winning basket a week earlier against St. Marys, gave the Redskins a one-point lead, Logan Lefeld added a layup before Brady Ronnebaum hit a trey to even it up. The Redskins pulled ahead again on a bucket by Carter Ontrop, but Eyink answered with a pair of free throws with 49 seconds left.

St. Henry (4-1, 1-0 MAC) was struggling to run its offense initially, prompting coach Tim Rosenbeck to call a timeout with 20 seconds to play. On the other side, Casey Bruening ran down the clock, then passed it to Ontrop, who faked out one Marion defender and fed a perfect pass inside to Gels.

"They're really good with their pressure, so the biggest thing was making sure that we had the last shot," Rosenbeck said. "Bennett Gels made a great cut, and it was a nice bounce pass (by Ontrop)."

The Flyers still had 3.6 seconds to try to tie the game, and 2.7 after a pass across half-court and a quick timeout. But Charlie Huelsman's pass was intercepted by Lefeld in the middle, extinguishing Marion's last hopes.

"The pass didn't get to where it was supposed to go," Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "I don't know if it got deflected or what. We just didn't execute in that situation."

Up until the final minutes, Marion (0-4, 0-1 MAC) had controlled the game. Sharpshooting from Dane Goettemoeller and Eyink in the first quarter gave the Flyers a 13-7 lead, as the Redskins struggled with turnovers.

But Marion slumped in the second quarter, scoring just three points to go into halftime with a 16-13 lead.

"We've probably had four or five quarters this year where we've only gotten about three points in a quarter," coach Goettemoeller said. "We just go dry offensively, and I don't think it's any one thing."

The Flyers continued to hold off St. Henry, especially as Eyink got hot to power the offense. Eyink scored 12 of Marion's 20 points in the second half, finishing with 19 for the game.

"Alex has to score for us, there's no question, but we need some other guys to step up," coach Goettemoeller said. "We need some kids that have played some varsity basketball to step up and score for us, because you can't be a one-man show. You're just too defendable that way, and right now we're averaging in the 30s."

But the Redskins countered with Lefeld, who dominated the paint all night. Although St. Henry shot just 1-14 from beyond the arc and couldn't get anyone else going to take the pressure off, Lefeld beat the Flyers in the paint time and again, finishing with a game-high 21 points and nine rebounds.

"I saw a young man who does all the clichés right: work hard, keep your head down, be coachable," Rosenbeck said of Lefeld. "Two years ago, if you told me this was the player he was going to turn into, I would not have believed you. But he just kept working."

The tide began to turn late in the third quarter after Marion had stretched the lead to seven. Seth Heitkamp gave the Redskins a spark with a steal and breakaway layup late in the third, and Gels hit a two near the end of the quarter to keep the deficit to four.

In the fourth, Lefeld tied the game for the first time since the first quarter with 5:42 to go. Eyink responded with an and-one, but St. Henry kept chipping away, as Ontrop hit a layup and Gels drained the two free throws to give the Redskins the lead.

Keeping the lead was even more difficult for Marion since it struggled to draw fouls, with just one foul levied against the Redskins in the final frame compared to seven for the Flyers.

"We just don't get to the free throw line enough," Goettemoeller said. "We've got to get to the line and close it out from the free throw line when we've got a lead. But we just didn't do a good enough job."

It was the second last-second loss for Marion this season, with the other coming against St. Marys two weeks ago.

"Overall, we just have to keep hanging with it," Goettemoeller said. "It's a long season, we started out 0-4 last year and here we are again. We're going to have to find a way to grab a W here."

Marion goes back on the road to face Celina tonight while St. Henry travels to Fort Loramie on Tuesday.