Getting Defensive

ST. MARYS - With the margin never stretching past six points, St. Marys' lead wasn't safe until the buzzer sounded.

Kendall Dieringer's five-point run late in the fourth made the difference, and Stella Huelsman's tying shot at the buzzer was tipped and fell short as the Roughriders pulled out a 50-47 win over Marion Local in girls basketball action at Grand Lake Health System Court on Tuesday.

"Our defense won this game," St. Marys coach Jon Burke said, "but our offensive poise definitely pulled it out in the fourth quarter for us."

Marion (11-4) tied the game at 34 with a bucket from Sammy Hoelscher on the first possession of the fourth, only to see Dieringer answer on the other side. St. Marys (12-3) opened up another four-point lead with 4:51 left on a free throw by Karsyn McGlothen, but Huelsman hit a layup under the basket to cut it to two, and after an empty Roughriders possession and a miss by Koenig, Molly Winner drew a foul and went to the line with a chance to tie the game.

Winner missed both free throws, but Koenig grabbed the rebound and put it back to make it 43-all with 2:43 left.

"When we were giving up second, third chances, it was killing us," Burke said. "But I thought we got some big rebounds in key moments."

Two offensive fouls on St. Marys gave the Flyers two possessions with a chance to take the lead, but the first ended in a turnover and Noelle Ruane grabbed a rebound on the second and the Roughriders settled into their half-court offense. Cora Rable spotted Dieringer and passed across the arc, where Dieringer drove inside and scored to make it 45-43 with 2:06 to play.

Huelsman drew a foul from Dieringer on a short jumper and hit both free throws to knot it back up. Dieringer scored again, and this time Rable deflected a Flyers' pass and grabbed the ball to give the Roughriders a chance at a two-possession lead. Dieringer's first shot bounced out of bounds off a Marion player, but given a second opportunity on a pass from Ruane, she drove the lane for a bucket and drew a foul from Avae Unrast to boot.

Dieringer sank the free throw to make it 50-45 with 56.9 seconds left.

"We just had a couple mental breakdowns, I thought, especially defensively, where we lost some of their shooters," Marion Local coach Beth Streib said. "And we didn't contain Dieringer as well in the second half as we did in the first half. But overall, you change a possession or two, it could easily go the other way."

Hoelscher needed less than 10 seconds to cut it to three, and after St. Marys was able to drain 29 seconds off the clock, Unrast fouled with 18.8 seconds left to send Dieringer back to the line. This time she missed, and though McGlothen grabbed the initial rebound, Chloe Ronnebaum was able to steal the ball to give the Flyers one last shot.

After a timeout, Hoelscher took the inbounds pass and dribbled left, looking for a shot. Closely guarded, she passed back to the right, where Huelsman got it and dribbled back toward the top of the key with the clock winding down. Jacobs got around a screen and came flying in, and Huelsman's shot grazed her arm and wobbled harmlessly to the ground as the buzzer sounded.

"We didn't know if they were coming out in a man or a zone, so we had something set up that we could run either way," Streib said. "We had a couple different options coming off of it, and I just wanted Sammy to try to make a play and read."

The Flyers came out of halftime trailing by four, but quickly closed the gap, and Hoelscher briefly gave them the lead at 24-23 with 5:05 left in the third. It took less than 15 seconds before the Roughriders answered, with Dieringer driving the baseline and kicking out to Jacobs in the left corner for a trey, and the Flyers never regained the lead.

St. Marys shot 7-of-12 from deep, with five coming in the second half from five different players.

"We wanted to help in the paint on Dieringer, so we just had to close out a little bit quicker on those shooters when she kicked," Streib said. "But she's a great player and she finds the open person well.

"Sometimes you've got to pick your battles. We tried to stop her, then we spread it out a little bit, and then she was able to get to the paint more, especially in the fourth quarter."

Both offenses started slowly, with Marion faltering after an early 6-0 lead and falling into a scoring drought that lasted nearly six minutes at the start of the second quarter. But the Roughriders could only muster five points of their own, and when Ronnebaum snapped the drought with a bucket with 2:43 left, the Flyers went on a five-point run to retake the lead at 17-16.

Reese Rable tied the game on a free throw, Dieringer scored in transition, and Morgan Hesse added a bucket to give St. Marys a 21-17 halftime lead.

"We were trying to do everything we could to slow (Hoelscher) down, and that probably opened things up for some other players," Burke said. "That's the best mid-range shooting team we've seen all year. They're a tough team. You know what's coming, but to stop the post and stop the outside shooting, it's very difficult."

Dieringer scored 18 points, putting her at 982 for her career. Hoelscher scored 14 for the Flyers, with Huelsman and Koenig each adding 10.

Marion returns home on Thursday for a Midwest Athletic Conference game against Minster, while St. Marys hosts Western Buckeye League leader Shawnee.