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St. Henry's Morgan Baumer (3) battles with Marion Local's Faith Ronnebaum (40) for the ball during Thursday's MAC girls basketball contest at the Hangar. The Redskins defeated the Flyers 41-36 to take sole possession of first place in the MAC.
MARIA STEIN - In a game featuring the two best defenses in the Midwest Athletic Conference, every point counted for St. Henry and Marion Local on Thursday night.
The Redskins built an early lead, then survived not scoring for over six minutes in the fourth quarter to beat the Flyers 41-36 and claim sole possession of first place in the MAC girls basketball standings at the Hangar.
The win gave St. Henry (15-3, 8-0 MAC) at least a share of its second overall - and second consecutive - conference crown. An outright title could come as early as Saturday as Marion (16-2, 6-1 MAC) hosts Minster. A Marion loss gives the Redskins an outright title. Otherwise, St. Henry hosts Parkway next Thursday, where a win clinches the outright title.
"I'm just happy for the girls," said St. Henry coach Nate Uhlenhake. "They put in all the work and it's good to see their efforts rewarded. Couldn't be prouder of the team."
Both teams put the defensive pressure on from the get-go. Nearly two minutes passed before Morgan Baumer put the Redskins on the board first with free throws, then followed a minute later with a bucket to make it 4-0. Marion took over three minutes to dent the scoreboard on a Chloe Ronnebaum basket. St. Henry put the lead to 9-2 at one point and were up 14-8 after one quarter on Baumer's buzzer-beating jumper.
"We left too many points in the first quarter," said Flyers coach Beth Streib. "After that, we buckled down defensively. I told the girls if they look at the MAC stats, St. Henry and Marion are at the top in scoring and defense."
The Redskins continued to keep the Flyers at arm's length in the second quarter, getting up 24-14 with 2:15 to play in the half on Ava Homan's 3-pointer, only for Marion to get free throws from Avae Unrast with 3.9 seconds left to cut the margin to 26-19 at the half.
Marion Local's Avae Unrast shoots the ball against St. Henry.
Key for the Redskins was the 3-pointers. After going 0-for-15 from the arc in the Dec. 27 loss to the Flyers, St. Henry was 4-of-7 at the half and shot just over 50% from the field (9-of-17).
"Every point mattered, right?" said Uhlenhake. "Last time we played them, we didn't make a three. We started off well from three, then had some cold streaks."
The start of the second half was a flurry of scoreless possessions as the teams combined on 10 straight possessions without a score. The Redskins snapped their cold spell with 3:56 to play in the third quarter on a Molly Wendel bucket and it took Marion nearly six minutes before Unrast got a bucket to fall. Addy Homan came back with a 3-pointer to put the lead for St. Henry at 31-21 with 1:44 to play in the quarter.
The Redskins last scored in the third quarter on a Wendel basket with two seconds remaining to make it 34-23. By the time St. Henry scored in the fourth quarter, the Flyers were pounding on the door.
Starting with Mya Eckstein's free throw with 5:59 to play in regulation, the Flyers started scratching their way back. Two more Eckstein free throws with 3:08 to go cut the margin to 34-29. Half a minute later, Unrast hit two free throws to get the Flyers within a possession, then after a St. Henry timeout and turnover, Unrast made two more from the stripe to get the Flyers to within a point at 34-33 with 2:12 to play.
"I think we got a little complacent on offense," said Uhlenhake. "It's a long time to try and run the clock out. I said we had to get a little more aggressive. If we tried to play on our heels and run clock out, we weren't going to be able to finish the game on top."
St. Henry's Leah Lefeld (40) pulls down the rebound while surrounded by Marion Local players.
Leah Lefeld snapped the cold spell for St. Henry with 1:54 to play with a free throw to make it 35-33. The Flyers missed a 3-pointer and the Redskins brought the ball down to try and milk some time before Karlee Buschur got open in the paint for an uncontested layup with 1:11 to play to put the Redskins up four. Marion got back to within a point with a minute to play on Kalyn Thobe's 3-pointer, the only trey the Flyers hit on the night. Lefeld got another free throw with 41.8 seconds to play to get the margin back to two. The Flyers tried a trey to take the lead, but missed as Wendel rebounded and got the ball to Alexis Buschur, who was fouled with 14.8 seconds to play. Alexis Buschur, who missed two free throws earlier in the quarter, was spot-on both tries to make it a four-point game. The Flyers' 3-point try was off the mark with Wendel boarding again and Alexis Buschur drawing the foul, making just one of the two to apply the coup de grâce.
"It's always good to beat a team that's well-coached. They play super hard," Uhlenhake said of Marion. "Proud of the girls for battling."
"They obviously shot way better than we did (Marion shot just 26.4% from the field to St. Henry's 46.4%)," said Streib. "Like Treva (assistant coach Treva Fortkamp) said, it's a flip-flop from when we played at St. Henry."
Baumer and Wendel each had nine for St. Henry with Wendel pulling down 10 rebounds.
Unrast finished with 13 points for Marion. Eckstein added 11.
St. Henry travels to Bath on Saturday, then goes to St. Marsy on Tuesday
