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01-14-04: Flyers rough up Bulldogs

Marion defense holds Celina to season-low points

By ROBB HEMMELGARN
Standard Correspondent

MARIA STEIN — Between now and Thursday evening, if anyone stumbles across a resemblance of the team that Celina head coach Jack Clouse thought he was bringing with him to Marion Local last night, you may want to give the veteran skipper a call.
The Marion Local Flyers applied a frustrating zone defense and dominated the boards en route to a 42-27 win over the visiting Bulldogs.
Clouse was left scratching his head following the defeat.
“Coming into tonight’s game, I would have described my team as a very fine offensive group, but I didn’t recognize the team we had on the floor.” He continued, “None of our girls played to their potential tonight. It’s really hard to figure out what to attribute it to — Marion Local’s defense, the flu bug, finals this week, four games in eight days? Who knows?”
Celina held an early 6-5 advantage in the first quarter but from there it was all Blue and Gold. The Flyers closed the quarter with eight points in the next 2:40 to go up 13-6 following one period of action.
Despite beginning with two turnovers in the first thirty seconds, the home team owned the second quarter as well, holding the Bulldogs to no field goals and just two points before the half. Sophomore Maria Moeller and Erin Brand led the Flyers with seven and six points, respectively, as the Flyers completed a 19-2 spurt before the teams commenced to the locker rooms with the home team in front, 24-8.
“The first thing I told the girls when we got to the locker room was not to become complacent,” remarked Flyer coach Treva Fortkamp. “I told them to imagine what it would be like in our locker room if we were on the other end of the scoreboard and they could be assured Celina would come out firing.”
Things didn’t get much better for Celina in the third quarter as Marion Local, the defending Division IV state champions, closed the third quarter with a 32-15 advantage.
“We needed to come out in the third quarter and start getting back to basics,” said Clouse. “We really didn’t make any adjustments at the half partly because the things we were doing wrong were very basic, and if we can’t do those right, we were going to be in trouble no matter what.”
Thobe extended the Marion Local lead to 19 points with just over five minutes to play in the game, but then the Bulldogs began to emerge from their shell of offensive ineptness.
Senior Jenna Schleucher followed a pair of free throws with a shot from downtown to pull Celina to within 14 points, forcing a timeout from the Marion Local bench.
“I just told the girls to continue executing and to not be in a rush,” explained Fortkamp of her timeout speech. “We were still in command and I didn’t want things to fall apart after performing so well to that point.”
Celina’s Betsy Hone connected on her second shot from behind the three-point arc a short time later, and all of a sudden with 2:30 to play, Celina was only down 11 points.
The effort, although intriguing, was too little, too late, as Marion Local built its lead to as many as 15 points and held on for a 42-27 win.
“I’m very happy with the way it turned out tonight,” commented Fortkamp. “Celina is a very good team, so we consider this a big win. I’m happy with the balance we showed in scoring and I’m very excited about the way our defense was able to keep (Kelli) Williams and (Kara) Osterfeld in check tonight.”
The loss drops Celina to 9-4 on the season, and the Green and White will play host to the Elida Bulldogs on Thursday at the Fieldhouse. The Flyers hit the midway point of the season with a 9-1 slate and will travel to Fort Recovery to face a strong Indian squad, also on Thursday.

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