Flyers tame the Tigers

MARIA STEIN - The Hangar was packed to the rafters and the fans got their money's worth in Monday's battle between state-ranked Versailles and Marion Local.

The game came down to the wire with the Flyers taking the lead for good with 1:21 left in the game and playing solid defense to beat the Tigers 52-47.

The win puts Marion firmly in the driver's seat in the Midwest Athletic Conference at 15-4 and 7-0. The Tigers drop their third straight game and fall to 16-4 and 6-2 in the MAC.

"You know it's not going to come easy when you play a team like Versailles," Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller said.

The plan of the Flyers was simple and known to everyone in the house: shut down Tiger standout Justin Ahrens.

"We had limited preparation time," Goettemoeller continued. "We played Saturday night and basically had a walk-though yesterday. We never played a box-and-one."

With Matt Rethman and Collin Everman taking turns shadowing the Ohio State signee, Ahrens was out of the offensive balance, finishing with two NBA-length three-pointers and just seven points on 2-of-6.

Goettemoeller tipped the cap to a rival coach for the inspiration.

"I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but what I do well is steal from smart people. And I think Eric Rosenbeck is pretty smart," said Goettemoeller, referring to the St. Henry coach on his game plan last Friday in beating the Tigers. "Rosey knows what he's doing and I stole the game plan. I think we could do (the box-and-one on Ahrens) better because we're so long in our box. We caused them to not reverse the ball well. We weren't perfect, but we did enough."

Versailles coach Travis Swank knew what was coming and what will likely be coming the rest of the campaign.

"We still haven't had a full week of practice to go against it," said Swank. "I'm sure we'll see it Friday night at Coldwater. … We still had some stuff getting out of it but couldn't execute like we wanted."

The Tigers, though, had some backup with Justin Ahrens under wraps and A.J. Ahrens struggling with fouls. Kyle Jones stepped up in the first half and kept the Tigers fairly even with the Flyers. Jones had 12 points in the first half, wrapping up his scoring with a 3-pointer with just 61 seconds left in the first half to give the Tigers the lead at 23-21. The Flyers countered with four straight points from Nathan Bruns to return the lead to Marion 25-23 at halftime.

Marion could not shrug off Versailles in the second half as the Tigers answered every Marion point before A.J. Ahrens tied the game at 33-all with 1:51 left in the third. Keaton McEldowney then knocked down a trey with 1:15 left to put the Tigers back in front 38-35 at the end of the period.

At the start of the fourth quarter, Versailles tried to get some distance between itself and Marion, going up 43-36 with six minutes left to play in regulation. Tyler Mescher started the comeback for the Flyers with a layup with 5:48 to play. Bruns followed with a trey to get the Flyers to within two at 43-41 and after the Tigers turned the ball over for the third straight possession, Nick Tangeman got the bunny shot to fall to tie the game with just over three minutes to play. The Flyers continued to pressure the Tigers on defense, resulting in turnovers on two straight possessions. Finally Mescher got another pass inside and scored and was fouled with 2:03 left to put the Flyers in front. The free throw was missed and the Tigers finally capitalized when a Michael Stammen bucket to tie the game at 45-all with 96 seconds left. Marion worked the ball around to Tangeman, who was fouled with 1:21 left in regulation. Tangeman made both tosses to put the Flyers in front 47-45. The Tigers missed on its next possession and Mescher converted inside once again to make it a four-point game with 23 seconds left. After the Tigers missed on its next possession, Bruns was fouled, making one of two with 18.6 second left to make it 50-45. Noah Richard got the Tigers back to within three at 50-47, but Tyler Prenger calmly made two free throws with eight seconds left to ice the game.

"We're losing to quality teams. We had the lead in the fourth quarter in all of (the three straight losses), but we're not finishing the way we want to," Swank said. "If we continue playing good competition, it will get us better for the long haul."

"It was too early to come out of the box-and-one, but (Versailles) was stalling," Goettemoeller said. "Our kids, on their own, decided to trap them a little bit. That made (Versailles) a little skiddish out in front. We got some tips and steals doing that."

Mescher was 9-of-15 from the field to finish with 23 points. Bruns added 18 points.

McEldowney and Jones each finished with 12 points for Versailles.

On Friday night, Marion looks to wrap up at least a share of the MAC title when they travel to New Knoxville. Versailles returns to Mercer County on Friday to face Coldwater.

"(The win over Versailles) puts us a step closer to the goal of winning a league title," Goettemoeller said. "I told the kids after the game we're going to New Knoxville, a tough place to play. We're going to take them as serious as a heart attack because we have a chance to win a championship."