Not so typical

MARIA STEIN - Ivy Wolf had a big night for Minster.

Her performance, however, didn't stop Marion Local from getting its biggest win of the season.

With seven seconds remaining, Brooke Homan snatched a deflected pass 8-feet away from the hoop and swished it home to lift Marion to a 33-32 victory at the Hangar and spoil a 26-point effort by Wolf.

"The girls wanted this one - bad," Marion Local coach Beth Streib said.

Streib and Wildcats coach Mike Wiss both said after that Thursday's contest was a typical Marion-Minster game. The end result was not so typical.

Homan's shot helped the Flyers end a nine-game losing skid against the Wildcats. It also kept Marion Local alone atop the Midwest Athletic Conference standings at a perfect 5-0.

Trailing 31-25 midway through the fourth, Marion Local finished with an 8-1 run. Minster (11-3, 3-2 MAC) led 32-31 but missed the front end of a one-and-one with 40 seconds to play. It left the door open for Marion Local (14-1).

The Flyers worked nearly 30 seconds off the clock before Sammy Hoelscher had her pass inside to Homan tipped. But Homan beat her defender to the ball and scored the last of her eight points. A Minster turnover on the inbound play all but wrapped up Marion's first win in the series since March 2, 2013.

"The girls just kept their composure," Streib said. "They didn't worry about turnover or what went wrong on a play, they just went on to the next play. They got defensive stops and hit key buckets when they had to."

Wolf hit many key buckets for Minster, finishing 9-of-18 shooting. Her teammates couldn't buy a bucket, though. The other Wildcats made a combined 3-of-21 shots.

"There were some times when we didn't have enough movement offensively," Wiss said. "There's factors that go into that, but there are some things that we need to continue to work on to help us get through those situations."

There were more turnovers than points in the first quarter. Marion Local had 11. Minster had six. The teams were scoreless after three minutes. Wolf made a layup in transition for the game's first point, and she had a lot more buckets to come.

Minster led 6-4 after one quarter and Wolf cashed a pair of deep 3-pointers to start the second. She had 15 points at half for the Cats. The Flyers trailed by eight after Wolf's early second-quarter scoring flurry, but some offensive production by Sammy Hoelscher, Alana Pohlman and Brooke Homan got them to within two points. The Blue and Gold missed a wide-open layup to tie it at 14, though, and Minster stretched its lead to 17-12 by halftime.

"You can try to impersonate (Wolf) in practice, but you can't impersonate her speed and her strength. She's strong, too," Streib said.

Ten total fouls were called in the first half - five for each team. Fourteen were called in the third quarter, and the score was tied at 19-all. Wolf was forced to the bench with her third foul and Minster was 1-of-10 shooting. Hoelscher had four in the frame, Molly Winner added a bucket and Molly Rethman tied it late with 1-of-2 at the foul line.

Wolf scored 10 of Minster's first 12 points in the fourth quarter. But her free throw near the three-minute mark was the final Wildcat point. The Flyers clamped down on defense for the remainder and made 8-of-11 free throws in the fourth. A pair by Hoelscher pulled them to within one at the 1:30 mark. Homan's shot later gave Marion its first lead since it was 4-2 halfway through the first quarter.

"It got tipped and she went to go get it with her feet and we didn't get there quick enough," Wiss said. "Look at the number of tipped and loose balls that were in this game and how many would of, could of, should of jump balls. That's the energy that both of these teams play with. Are we disappointed? Yes. But is this a learning experience? Absolutely. We've got another game on Saturday."

Hoelscher had a team-high 10 points for the Flyers. Homan added 13 rebounds as they kept a one-game lead on Fort Recovery for sole possession of first in the MAC.

"Before the game, I told the girls defense was going to win the game," Streib said. "It was a typical Marion-Minster game. Back when I played and Maria (Moeller) played, it was always a low-scoring game. Our goal was to clog up the paint. Wolf was obviously still able to get there, but we did contain everybody else."

Minster returns to action on Saturday, hosting Ottoville in a rematch of the last two Division IV state championship games. Marion Local is off until next Thursday's trip to Delphos St. John's.