Cavs beat Flyers

MARIA STEIN - After locking up at least a share of the Midwest Athletic Conference title last week, Marion Local just needed to beat Coldwater Thursday for an outright championship.

The Cavaliers had other ideas.

Coldwater beat Marion at its own game, outlasting the Flyers 32-26 in a physical, defensive contest and winning in overtime for the second time this week.

"Overtime is good to us!" Coldwater coach Amy Meyer said.

Marion (18-3, 8-1 MAC), which wrapped up its MAC schedule Thursday, can still claim an outright title if Parkway loses to St. Henry next week. If the Panthers win, the Flyers will split the title for the second time in four years.

"It would've been cool to go undefeated in the MAC, but it's still a great accomplishment and that's what we told the girls," Marion coach Beth Streib said. "But we have to learn from this and move on … we've just got to come prepared. At times, I think we were very sporadic and not consistent."

Coldwater never trailed by more than two points, with Marion taking a 19-17 lead on Lindsay Koenig's free throw with 1:56 left in the third quarter. Claire Steinke brought the Cavaliers even with 31 seconds to go, and Becca Wenning put them ahead 27 seconds into the fourth with a steal that she turned into an old-fashioned 3-point play.

Chloe Ronnebaum hit a jump shot for the Flyers on the other end, and Koenig knotted it back up at 22 on another free throw three minutes later. After a Stella Huelsman steal, Avae Unrast hit a jumper to make it 24-22 with 2 1/2 minutes to play.

Riley Rismiller hit two free throws, Huelsman got another steal and a breakaway layup, and Rismiller drew a foul and tied it up from the line with 15 seconds left. Unrast took an off-balance three at the buzzer that hit the backboard, bounced off the front of the rim and fell out to send the game to overtime.

Neither team managed a bucket in overtime, but the Flyers were already at eight fouls, and so when Unrast was called for a reach outside the 3-point line, Wenning went to the line and hit a free throw to put the Cavaliers ahead for good.

"I don't know if there's a more physical team," Meyer said. "Marion's aggressive, and we handled it. At times we had turnovers, but we never gave in."

Marion committed three more fouls in the extra period, two reaches outside the arc and a deliberate foul with 19 seconds left to extend the game, and Coldwater went 6-of-10 from the line while shutting out the Flyers.

"We were obviously trying to pressure, and sometimes they call it, sometimes they don't," Streib said. "But officiating's not going to win or lose you the game. It's just one of those things, and they hit enough free throws to win."

But while Marion's aggressive defense has been its calling card in recent years, Coldwater's defense stepped up to stymie the Flyers. The Cavaliers' zone helped neutralize Koenig inside and got them favorable matchups on Marion's shooters.

"We tweaked our zone a little bit to match up a little bit differently with them," Meyer said. "The girls have worked hard, and they played well and communicated and were in the right spots when they needed to be."

The Flyers were also ice-cold from the floor, shooting 2-of-23 in the first half and 9-of-49 for the game. Unrast hit the only 3-pointer of the game, as the two teams combined to go 1-for-19 from the perimeter.

"A lot of times we were settling for the outside shot and not moving as much as we needed to," Streib said. "But again, you've got to credit Coldwater for their gameplan, and they executed and they made plays when they had to."

Rismiller was the only player in double digits, finishing with 13 points. Koenig led Marion with eight.

Marion wraps up the regular season Tuesday as second-ranked Fort Loramie comes to the Hangar. Coldwater returns to the Palace for its final two regular-season games, taking on Elida Tuesday and Delphos St. John's Thursday.