Flying solo

MARIA STEIN - After Friday's game, Marion Local boys basketball coach Kurt Goettemoeller joked that last Friday's loss at Versailles did have at least one positive.

"I told (Marion athletic director Dan Koenig) 'I think we sold a lot more tickets than we would have otherwise by losing to Versailles,' " said Goettemoeller.

The Hangar was packed as the Flyers looked to lock up an outright Midwest Athletic Conference championship. Standing in the way was a Delphos St. John's squad that could snare a share of the crown with a win.

After a back-and-forth first quarter, the Flyers took the lead in the second quarter and took control of the game in the second half to win the program's 12th MAC title - and seventh outright crown - in a 58-48 win over the Blue Jays.

"We got it done. That's the bottom line," said Goettemoeller, whose team enters the postseason at 18-4 after going 8-1 in conference play.

The Blue Jays (15-7, 6-3 MAC), who last hoisted the MAC trophy 10 years ago, were up for the challenge. Standout freshman Cameron Elwer scored six of the nine St. John's points in the first quarter as Marion, with leading scorer Jack Knapke in uniform but not playing for the second straight game after suffering a shoulder injury against Versailles, looked to its depth. Austin Niekamp, Brandon Eyink and Jadyn Mescher had buckets as St. John's led 9-7 after one.

Eyink tied up the game at 9-all with a layup early in the second quarter and Luke Pohlman put the Flyers up for good half a minute later with a bucket to make it 11-9. Tate Hess added two free throws to complete a 6-0 run. St. John's cut the deficit to a point at 15-14, but the Flyers rattled off five straight points to make it 20-14 and took a 21-16 at the half.

"I felt at halftime we felt good where we were (down five)," said St. John's coach Aaron Elwer. "We missed a lot of open shots that we like our guys taking. I thought we were efficient except for the shots not going in the rim."

Goettemoeller decided to make a push to start the second half, switching to a triangle-and-2 defense to put pressure on Elwer, who averaged 21.9 points per game coming into the contest. Pohlman had back-to-back buckets and Mescher and Hess came up big as the Flyers pushed the lead into double digit and were up 29-13 with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter.

"Getting a lead in the second quarter was key," said Goettemoeller. "At halftime we were up five and had the possession coming out. We decided to go triangle-and-2, which we hadn't done much of in the first half. I wanted to try and slow them down. You can't stay in one defense against them. They're too good and Elwer's too good. We've got a great defensive player in Tate and he did a good job on him, but man, (Elwer's) good."

"We see (the triangle-and-2) a lot. Unfortunately it took three, four minutes to get comfortable with it again," said coach Elwer. "By then, (Marion) extended (the lead) to eight or nine. In a low-possession game, that's a big lead."

Down 11 to start the fourth quarter, the Blue Jays tried to claw their way back after Marion built the lead up to 16 with just over three minutes gone in the quarter. Elwer worked his way to the basket to get either field goals or trips to the foul line, going 6-of-6 from the stripe and scoring 14 points in the fourth quarter as St. John's trimmed the margin down to seven with 49 seconds remaining. Marion, though, hit seven out of eight free throws down the stretch to turn away the last run.

Marion's depth led them through as the Flyers used a seven-player rotation for most of the game. Hess finished with a team-high 14 for Marion. Eyink and Niekamp each finished with 11 with Mescher's final two free throws putting him at 10 on the night. Pohlman added eight and Mitchell Ranly finished with four.

"We had a big win against state-ranked Russia (last Saturday) without Jack," said Goettemoeller. "Our team showed some grit the last two games. You have to give all our guys credit. … Mitch, Brandon (and) Luke did a great job. Really, our playmaker is Tate Hess. We need to have him on the floor."

Elwer finished his night with 27 points on 9-of-18 field goal shooting and a blistering 9-of-10 from the foul line, but he was the only Blue Jay to reach double figures as Landen Grothaus, who entered averaging just over 11 points per game, was held to seven points and Austin Moenter finished with eight.

The Flyers are off until next Friday as the top seed of the Wapakoneta Division IV district, awaiting the winner of Tuesday's Fort Recovery-New Knoxville game at St. Marys.