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Marion Local's Emersyn Mescher (23) runs the fast break as New Bremen's Charlotte Nelson keeps pace during Saturday's Division VI sectional final at the Hangar.
MARIA STEIN - After a week off from its last game, Marion Local opened the Division VI girls basketball tournament at home with New Bremen.
After spotting the Cardinals the opening basket, the Flyers rattled off 18 straight points to jump out and pull away for a 50-22 win at the Hangar on Saturday afternoon.
The Flyers (21-2) travels to Wapakoneta on Thursday to face Spencerville in the district semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The Cardinals end their season at 5-18.
"I thought our defensive game was phenomenal," said Flyers coach Beth Streib. "(New Bremen scored some at the end (matching the three-quarter total of 11 with 11 in the fourth quarter), but basically under 20 points (for most of the game). Key to have that defense there. We didn't shoot the greatest (19-of-48 for 39.6%), but that defense was key.
Marion Local's Avae Unrast shoots over New Bremen's Halle Kuenning.
The teams got off to a slow start, as two minutes passed before Stella Patch put the Cardinals in front 2-0 with a bucket. However, once the first shot dropped, the Flyers were ready to do their thing. Avae Unrast followed with a 3-pointer to put the Flyers in front to stay at 3-2 with 5:26 remaining, That was followed by an Unrast bucket, a Chloe Ronnebaum trey, a Mya Eckstein basket and another trey by Unrast that made the score 13-2 at the end of the quarter.
"We talked about we wanted to create turnovers and convert that into offense. I thought we did that," said Streib.
Faith Ronnebaum followed with a bucket to start the second quarter and then Unrast got the hoop-and-harm 3-point play at the 6:54 mark to make it 18-2. New Bremen ended its nearly 9 1/2 minute scoring drought with a 3-pointer from Patch, but at the half, it was 20-9 Flyers as New Bremen had taken just six shots in the first half - going 3-of-6 - and turned the ball over 13 times to the Flyers' three.
The second half had the Flyers slowly pulling away. Kalyn Thobe had back-to-back treys that made the score 38-11 with 30 seconds remaining in the quarter and Unrast capped off off an 18-2 quarter with a bucket just before the horn to make it 40-11.
"We had a little lull in the second quarter, but we cranked it back up in the third quarter," said Strieb. "I thought that was big."
Unrast got another bucket early in the fourth quarter before getting a rest for the remainder of the game as the two-time MAC Player of the Year finished with 15 points, five steals and five rebounds.
Chloe Ronnebaum added nine points with Eckstein finishing with eight.
Patch led the Cardinals with six points. Marina Nelson and Mia Hirschfeld each scored five points.
