The Daily Standard
Story Archive
Marion Local's Austin Niekamp (23) and Ryan Homan (11) battle with Celina's Logan Billerman for position during Monday's boys basketball team at the Fieldhouse. The Flyers won their third game in four days with a 58-45 decision over the Bulldogs.
CELINA - Both Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller and Celina coach Adam Johns came out of their teams' game on Monday night with a positive aspect.
The Bulldogs had an early lead on the Flyers and even after Marion rallied to take the lead, never gave an inch as Marion won its third game in four days 58-45 at the Fieldhouse.
After posting 20-plus point margin of victories in its first two games of the season, Marion never really pulled away against Celina. With just under five minutes to play, Celina was only down three before the Flyers ended the game on a 12-2 run.
"For the whole game, it was a battle," said Goettemoeller. "I've got to give and Celina a ton of credit. They hit us in the mouth early. We needed that. We had two blowout victories to start the season and it was good to have to play for four quarters."
The Bulldogs, which had only been able to get into the 40s once in their first five games of the season, shot 45.9% from the floor in the contest (17-of-37).
"For 3 1/2, almost four quarters, we gave it as much to Marion as they gave to us," said Johns.
Celina's Kaiden Werntz puts up a shot against Marion Local.
The hot shooting started early for Celina, taking an early 13-4 lead on the shooting of Kaiden Werntz and Gavin Wicker. The Flyers pivoted the momentum in the second quarter, quickly tying the game at 13-all just three minutes into the stanza as Austin Niekamp found his long distance shot with a pair of 3-pointers to help the Flyers go in front 24-18 at halftime.
Marion Local could not shake Celina, however, as the Bulldogs matched the Flyers shot for shot as Wicker hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 points in the third quarter. The Bulldogs briefly tied the Flyers 33-all on a Wicker basket with 2:16 to play in the quarter, but Niekamp responded with a bucket 30 seconds later to put Marion back in front to stay.
"Our message is to keep weathering storms," said Johns. "When shots start to go in, you get a little more energy. We just couldn't quite get over the hump."
Celina's Gavin Wicker (11) drives around a Marion Local defender during Monday's game.
"We made some mistakes defensively in the first half and again in the third quarter," said Goettemoeller. "We let Wicker get loose for three 3s. That was disappointing. We have a lot of clean up. We're at the start of our season and we need practice time. We'll get a practice in Tuesday and a practice in Thursday."
The Bulldogs stayed close for as long as possible, answering most of the Flyers' buckets with ones of their own. Logan Billerman got Celina to within three at 46-43 with a wide-open 3-pointer, prompting Goettemoeller to call a time out. After that, though, Grant Kremer hit a 3-pointer to signal the final run to put the margin into double digits for the first time of the night.
"After Logan's three, there was a time out, then Grant Kremer hit that three," said Johns. "We had two misses, then they had two misses, Next thing you know it's a 10 (point margin)."
Niekamp, who scored 35 combined points in the Flyers' wins over New Knoxville and St. Marys, had a big game inside and outside, hitting a trio of treys en route to a 25-point night to lead Marion.
"Austin was our dude tonight," said Goettemoeller. "When things weren't going well, we had to go to him. He's shown why he's probably a Division II player in college. He can shoot the three, but also post inside."
Brayden Mescher added 14 points for the Flyers (3-0).
Wicker finished his night with 19 points for Celina (1-5). Werntz added 15.
Both teams are back in action after Christmas on Friday. Marion travels to St. Henry on Friday to begin the Battle of Route 119 round-robin series with St. Henry and Fort Recovery. Marion then wraps up the round-robin on Saturday at the Hangar against Fort Recovery.
Celina has a home doubleheader this weekend, facing Bryan on Friday, then hosting Ansonia on Saturday.
