Panther pride

WAPAKONETA - The players in blue and gold gave it a good run on Friday night.

But this night belonged to the gold and black.

Caleb Kinney scored 10 of his game-high 17 points in the fourth quarter, helping Parkway defeat Marion Local 41-31 and clinch the program's first-ever boys basketball district title.

"All of the grind, all of the summer work leading up to this, it all paid off tonight," Kinney said.

The Panthers (18-7) had entered the week 0-for-4 in the district semifinal round, but they beat Minster 48-43 on Tuesday and then outslugged Marion Local for a second time this season. Parkway won the Jan. 10 contest at Marion Local 44-42. Friday's game featured six ties and eight lead changes before the Panthers finished it off with a 16-6 run.

"Their physicality is nothing like you can prepare for," Parkway coach Doug Hughes said. "I thought our JV and our freshman guys who have been practicing with us gave us a great look this week on Wednesday and Thursday trying to prepare us for the physicality. It's so important when you play Marion Local that the kids understand that you don't back down. It's going to be an extremely-physical contest. You've got to keep them off the boards. If you let them get going on the offensive glass or you back down, it's going to be awfully difficult to win."

Parkway will head to Bowling Green's Stroh Center on Tuesday to face Tiffin Calvert, a 53-36 winner over Arlington on Friday. The regional semifinal tips off at 8 p.m. The first semifinal will tip off at 6:15 p.m. and features No. 1 Columbus Grove against No. 2 Antwerp.
  Marion Local (13-13) had its eight-game winning streak come to a halt. The program was making a fourth straight district finals appearance - this one was more improbable than the previous three. The Flyers sat 5-12 after a Feb. 7 loss to New Bremen. They went nearly a whole month without getting beat again.

Coach Kurt Goettemoeller made his team a promise on Valentine's Day: get to the district final and he'd wear a pink bow tie.

"They wanted me to wear it on Valentine's Day and I said, 'You've got to earn that,' " Goettemoeller recalled. "I told them they had to get us to a district final. I said 'If you get us to a district final, then I'll wear a bow tie.' It looked pretty improbable back then when we were sitting 5-12. … What a heckuva run our guys had. I'm super proud of them. Obviously we're disappointed because we had a chance to get out of here. But it's so tough to get out of this district, and you just have to give all the credit in the world to Parkway. Their kids stepped up and made plays. They're just big and strong and they wore on us. Doug does a heckuva job. We're definitely disappointed that we lost. But we'll definitely be rooting for those guys to get to Columbus."

The teams were locked at 8-apiece after one quarter and 15-all at halftime. The score was 12-10 for what felt like forever in the second quarter. A Kinney 3-pointer put Parkway in front 13-12. A Nate Ungruhn trey sent Marion back in front moments later. Nick Hawk drove and scored to level the score at halftime.

Parkway opened up its then-biggest lead early in the second half as Hawk powered up for two points and then Dylan Hughes converted a layup after a Marion turnover. Bryce Moeller reeled off six straight points over the next two minutes to send the Flyers back ahead 21-19. A Caden Slusher 3 at the three-minute mark gave Parkway a 22-21 advantage. The score stayed there for the quarter's remainder.

Moeller, who took the only five shot attempts for Marion in the third quarter, splashed a triple to give himself nine points and his team an early fourth-quarter edge. But Slusher buried his second from deep moments later. The score was tied once more at 25-all, then Kinney scored five as part of a 6-2 run that put the Panthers in front 31-27 with four minutes left.

Alex Eyink cut Marion's margin to two with a pair of free throws. Kinney sent his team back in front four by hitting a contested shot over Marion's Matt Everman with 120 seconds remaining. It was trimmed to two once again shortly after as Eyink rebounded his own free-throw miss and scored.

The Panthers played keep away until the Flyers fouled with 39 seconds to go. Kinney split the pair, missing the second and then fouling Ungruhn on the rebound. But Ungruhn missed the front end of a one-and-bonus. Dylan Hughes then sunk two free throws for Parkway, which padded its lead from the line.

"It was a close game last time. We knew it'd be tough again - it's always going to be tough in the district finals," Kinney said. "We figured out how to get it done."

"We knew we could do it," added Hawk, who finished with four points. "This is the best feeling in the world right now."

Kinney made 6-of-9 shots and 3-of-4 freebies for his 17. Dylan Hughes and Slusher added 10 points each for the Panthers, who converted 11-of-14 free-throw attempts.

"It's hard because they've got four or five guys who can score. You can't just key on one guy," Goettemoeller said. "Slusher hit some big shots and we were all over him, sticky, and he hit two big 3s in the second half. I don't think he had scored before that. Kinney really stepped up. We gave up some baseline out-of-bounds plays. We pride ourselves in not giving those up and we gave up two or three tonight, which could have been the difference in the game."

Moeller led Marion with nine points. Alex Eyink added eight, Charles Huelsman and Ungruhn each netted seven.

Long after the Flyer fans had headed for the exits, Panther people made themselves cozy at center court - taking pictures with the team, sharing hugs and congratulations. Parkway athletic director Matt Triplett said the moment was 58 years in the making.

For the first time since the school district opened up in 1961-62, fire trucks escorted a district-champion boys basketball team into town.

"This is as good as it gets in high school sports and high school basketball for a couple of reasons," coach Hughes said. "No. 1) the crowd, the entire community comes behind a team like they are and No. 2) I just couldn't be prouder of this group of kids."