The Daily Standard
Story Archive
FORT LORAMIE - Of the three area teams that went down to Fort Loramie for the MLK Classic on Sunday, only one came away with a win.
St. Marys dealt Lexington its first loss of the season, earning a 49-46 win with a clutch fourth quarter, while Marion Local came up short in a 35-33 defeat to Springfield Shawnee and Minster fell 55-42 to Miami East.
In the other games, Liberty-Benton defeated Anna 49-45, Russia beat Willard 71-60 and the host Redskins defeated Yellow Springs 61-45.
St. Marys' Austin Parks puts up a shot over Lexington's Baden Forup on Sunday at the Fort Loramie MLK Classic. Parks had 20 points as the Roughriders handed the Minutemen their first loss of the season.
Coming off a clutch Western Buckeye League win over Van Wert, the Roughriders went toe-to-toe with the undefeated Minutemen for 32 minutes and came out on top.
The margin never went above five in either direction, and after rallying from a 9-4 deficit, the Roughriders never trailed by more than three the rest of the way. Lexington went up 35-32 on a Hudson Moore three with 90 seconds left in the third, Jace Turner cut the deficit to one with a short jump shot, and Austin Parks put the Roughriders on top 10 seconds into the fourth.
Evan Angstmann and Brayden Sullivan hit treys to make it 42-37 with 5:35 left in the fourth, but Elijah Hudson answered from the left wing, and after Cobain Owens cut to the hoop for a layup from Parks, Brayden Fogle slammed home a dunk and Moore banked in a mid-range shot to tie it up again with 4:13 left.
St. Marys, which committed seven turnovers total and just one in the fourth quarter, buckled down and held the Minutemen to just two more points.
"When we take care of the ball, get in our half-court, defend, we can be a pretty good basketball team," St. Marys coach Dan Hegemier said. "I just told our guys, when you take care of the ball, I can coach and my assistants can coach. I thought they did a great job today against a very quality team."
Despite Hegemier's staunch preference for man defense, St. Marys switched to a 3-2 zone down the stretch, and Lexington tried to drain the final 3 1/2 minutes off the clock before a pass deflected off Gavin Husty's hands out of bounds. Angstmann missed a shot, Baden Forup grabbed the rebound, and the Minutemen went back on the attack.
"I hate it, I've made a living off of it too," Hegemier said of the zone. "We went to the zone due to the fact that a lot of the guys were tired. We basically only played five. So that's what we have to do to compete, but I thought our guys sucked it up and played well."
Fogle, a freshman with three Division I offers in hand, gave Lexington a two-point advantage with a shot under the basket past a leaping Parks with 1:46 left. It took Parks 19 seconds to respond, with a floater through contact that bounced off the front of the rim and fell through. Forup was whistled for a foul, and Parks hit the and-one to put the Roughriders ahead by one.
St. Marys' Brayden Sullivan (11) tries to get around a Lexington defender.
Hudson lined up a long jump shot with 53 seconds left, but Parks sent it right back, and Owens grabbed the rebound and was fouled.
"I thought Austin's block there at the end was a big, big, big key," Hegemier said.
Parks missed the front end of a one-and-one, but the Minutemen couldn't find a good look and had to call timeout with 12.5 seconds left. With four fouls in the half, the Riders committed two fouls that wiped out half the remaining time, and Alex Depperschmidt fired a long three from the left side that clanged off the rim and bounced to Owens.
Husty fouled Owens with 0.8 seconds left, Owens hit both shots to stretch the lead to three, and Sullivan knocked down a long inbounds pass to end the game.
Parks was named the game's MVP with 20 points.
Marion Local's Tate Hess looks to take a shot against Springfield Shawnee.
The Flyers couldn't shake off a sluggish start until late in the first half, but they tied the game with three minutes left and got two shots to tie or take the lead in the final five seconds.
Tate Hess leveled the game at 33 on two free throws with 3:05 remaining, Zion Crowe got a bucket 37 seconds later to put the Braves back on top, and Marion (9-2) couldn't find one more bucket. After exchanging turnovers, the Flyers committed three fouls before Hess forced a bad inbounds pass and Luke Pohlman dove on the ball with 30 seconds to play.
Marion struggled to find a look, but Pohlman lined up a trey with 4.2 seconds left, only for it to be whistled off because his foot had touched the sideline. Mitchell Ranly promptly fouled after the inbounds, Darian Dixon missed the front end of the one-and-one, and the Flyers got a timeout with 3.3 seconds left.
Marion's inbounds pass got knocked down but bounced to Austin Niekamp just behind the arc, where he fired a trey to beat the buzzer. It fell short.
"We just couldn't make a perimeter shot," Marion coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "We only made one three in the whole game. When they're really helping down on their bigs, we've got to be able to shoot the basketball, and we didn't shoot it tonight."
Marion fell behind 8-3 early, then gave up a 12-4 run to start the second quarter that put Springfield Shawnee ahead by 11. The Flyers struggled to find shooting in the absence of Jadyn Mescher, but the Braves were also noticeably quicker to the ball, particularly on rebounds.
"That was embarrassing, and at halftime, that got addressed," Goettemoeller said. "I thought it was better in the second half, we were better on the boards in the second half, but they won all the loose balls. We didn't play with energy in the first half, and we probably deserved to lose the game, because we just didn't play for four quarters."
Marion Local's Austin Niekamp goes in for a layup against Springfield Shawnee.
Hess banked in a jumper with 2:41 left in the half to get the Flyers going a little, and Ranly hit their only trey on a contested shot a minute
Free throws from Brandon Eyink and Pohlman and a Niekamp bucket tied the game at 20 with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third, but the Braves scored six straight to make it 28-22 with 1:22 left. Hess got a bucket and Knapke got a hoop-and-harm, but Cody Siemon hit a corner three with 1.4 seconds left to bring the lead back to four.
"We did a good job at the end of the first half to knock it down to four, and then it was just a fistfight in the second half," Goettemoeller said. "We just didn't make any shots. We got some clean looks that we just didn't make. If we'd made one or two of those, the game might've turned out really differently, but you've got to give them a lot of credit. I thought they defended us really well."
Knapke led the way with 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Minster's Cole McClurg (0) is defended by Minster's Devon Abshire.
A second-quarter slump put the Wildcats in a double-digit hole, and they couldn't make up enough ground in the second half against the Vikings.
The Wildcats gave up a 12-0 run over two minutes in the second quarter and didn't get closer than four the rest of the way.
"Frustrating," Minster coach Michael McClurg said. "This group needs a win. But I thought we played hard - I mean, they're the No. 1 team in Division III (according the Martin RPI rankings). With our group, you see spots where we're good, and then you see spots where we're a bunch of younger kids. That's kind of what we are right now. We're getting better, but we're not patient enough, especially on the offensive end."
After a free throw by Ian Homan brought Minster (2-13) within three, McClurg was called for a foul on Cameron Monnin's 3-point shot and Monnin hit two of the three free throws to make it 23-18 with 4:31 left in the half. Kole Richard missed on the other end and Jacob Roeth hit a trey with a hand in his face to stretch the lead to eight.
Roeth stole the ball for a breakaway layup, and Connor Apple followed suit to make it 33-18 before Cole Albers got a bucket to stop the slide.
The Wildcats got six points back before the break, then made a run at the lead in the third. Richard got an and-one to cut the lead to four, and after Apple hit a trey, Ian Homan matched it to make it 38-34 with 2:45 left in the quarter.
Miami East got the lead back to five heading into the fourth Roeth added a floater 46 seconds in, and Bryce Haught got a steal and a bucket to stretch the lead to nine. Richard got a driving layup, Roeth answered, and Logan Kohne hit a trey to cut the lead back to six before Roeth and Haught scored to make it a 10-point game again.
"We pulled it to four in the third quarter there, and then they went on another run, just like they did in the first half," coach McClurg said. "We had it close for the first quarter, then they went on a run. It's kind of like, man, we're not able to get over that hump to get stops and scores when we really, truly need to."
Minster's Cole Albers sets up for a basket against Miami East.
Richard finished with 11 points, while Albers scored 10 and pulled down 10 rebounds.
Roeth finished with a game-high 31 points. Wes Enis, who came in averaging 22.5 points per game, shot 3-of-15 from the field and scored nine points.
"Roeth is a really good player, one of the better point guards I've seen in a long time, and obviously Enis is a load too," coach McClurg said. "But I thought we did a good job on Enis, just Roeth really got us. That speaks to our inability to guard at a really high level yet. We're just not there."
