Austin Moenter (left) of Delphos St. John’s and Marion Local’s Austin Niekamp try to get to the ball first during Friday night’s game at Marion Local. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Don Speck | The Lima News
MARIA STEIN — By the numbers, Marion Local is the best defensive team in the Midwest Athletic Conference and it was the Flyers defense that helped them down Delphos St. John’s 57-48 to capture the conference crown in front of an overflowing crowd Friday night.
With the win Marion Local improves to 18-4 for the season and 8-1 in the Midwest Athletic Conference to capture the conference title for the second straight season and for the 13th time in school history. Delphos falls to 15-7 and 6-3 in MAC action.
Marion Local head coach Kurt Goettemoeller said the team showed some grit in securing the win.
“I thought we just did a great job staying poised early,” Goettemoeller said. “They are a tough guard and we were able to get a six point lead and that was big. After half we went to the triangle and two to slow them down and we were able to get a 10 or 11 point lead and the rest of the game was closing it out and I thought we did a good job of closing the game out.”
Without the services of Jack Knapke, one of the team’s top players, the Flyers utilized a blanched scoring attack with four different players scoring in double digits. Tate Hess led the way with 14 points, followed by Brandon Eyink and Austin Niekamp adding 11 each. Jadyn Meschner finished with 10.
“That was great to see,” Goettemoeller said. “We had three or four guys in double digits. Austin stepped up with Jack out and he had a nice night. I thought our bench kids played well but Tate Hess is our floor general and he is our best defender.”
Delphos, which also put in a solid defensive effort, stayed within striking distance throughout the contest, and had a small late rally that fell, the short.
“I thought in the first half we had a lot of really good looks,” Delphos head coach Aaron Elwer said. “We were getting in the paint and working inside and outside and we we didn’t shoot a very high percentage. I don’t know what the numbers were. Those are shots against a team that is so good defensively, the best team in the league and we needed to make those and we did not.
“I still liked where we were at halftime. I thought we were making good decisions and defending well enough but we were just inconsistently offensively and really making the open shots. We really didn’t turn the ball over on offense and our finishing was pretty good other than the ball not going in the basket.”
Delphos’ Cameron Elwer led all scorers with a hard fought 27 points.
After the first eight minutes, Delphos owned a 9-7 lead but with by struggling on the floor, Marion Local grabbed the lead in the second quarter and by the time the buzzer sounded at halftime, Marion Local was up 21-16.
An 8-0 rally by the Flyers saw Marion Local’s lead jump from five to 13 and the Flyers had a 29-16 lead with a little more than five minutes in the third quarter.
Poor free throw shooting early in the fourth quarter allowed the Blue Jays to rally and Delphos sliced to lead to single digits, 53-44 with a minute and a half remaining. However, the Bluey Jays could not continue the late rally and fell short.
Despite the disappointing loss, coach Elwer was proud of his team’s effort this season.
“I was proud of guys,” Elwer said. “We had the opportunity to play for the title against the eventual champs on their home floor. I think we had some goals and some returning guys with young pieces and we thought if we could stay healthy we had a chance to be right there and it is a cool experience for our guys and our program. We are close. It just wasn’t meant to be.”
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
