ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ANDREW JOST
“We lost-big time lost.”
Coach Daryl Enos needed only a few words to express his disappointment after what was perhaps his team’s worst performance of the season.
On Saturday, the Marion Warrior girls faced off against the Sunrise Academy Knights in the snow-delayed final round of the Eli J. Walter Invitational at Berean Academy and lost by a lop-sided 76-47 margin.
“We had a good first quarter, a so-so fourth quarter and forgot to show up the second and third quarters,” Enos said.
The winner of the game, which had been rescheduled after last week’s winter storm, attained third place in the week-long tournament.
Initially, the Warriors were well in the game and by the end of the first quarter, they held the lead at 13-12.
“I thought we were in pretty good shape in the first quarter,” Enos said. “It looked like we were kind of firing on all cylinders.”
Coming into the second quarter, Enos said his team appeared to be gaining an advantage over the Knights.
“They were tired,” he said. “I thought, ‘Hey, we’ve got our legs under us, let’s go.’
“About that time we had a turnover or two and missed some shots. That snowballed.”
The Knights were beating Marion like a drum before halftime sounded, outscoring them to the tune of 21-8.
Enos said lackadaisical rebounding and turnovers hurt his team the most. Marion had 13 turnovers by half and 28 by the end of the night.
“We’re just not tough enough when we need to be,” he said. “There are some loose balls and we’re kind of standing around watching them.”
Despite falling behind 11 points by halftime, Enos said the third quarter was the true turning point of the game.
“It went from 11 to 20,” he said of the Knights’ lead. “I looked up and I couldn’t call timeout fast enough.
“We just came out and it was over. It just looked like we gave up-that’s sure what it looked like from the sidelines.”
For the night, Brandi Peterie-Shipman led the Warriors with 12 points and nine rebounds. She was followed by Sarah Williams, Caitlin O’Dell and Allie Maddox with eight points.
With the loss, Marion’s overall record falls to 9-5.
“You score 94 points a week ago and you can only muster 47-I don’t know,” Enos said. “People see the stats, but there’s something deeper than that.”
The Warriors have a full week of action ahead. Following their game Tuesday night at Wichita Independent, Marion will head north to Herington on Friday night to do battle with the Railers.
Then on Saturday afternoon, they’ll play host to the league’s frontrunner, Sacred Heart, in a game that was postponed from earlier in the season. Tip-off has not yet been announced.
Centre-The Marion girls slipped out of Centre Tuesday night with a convincing win over their intra-county rival, outscoring the Cougars 33-18 in the second half on their way to a 56-42 win.
After sleeping through the first minutes of play, the Warriors came to life, outscoring Centre through each of the final three quarters.
“We started off really slow,” coach Daryl Enos said. “We were down 13-2 and at the end of the first quarter, it was 17-11.”
Reviewing his team’s shooting accuracy for the first quarter, Enos said simply, “We were terrible.”
Capitalizing on Marion’s shooting slump, the Cougars maintained a deliberate style to consume time.
“They spread the floor on us and were very, very patient,” Enos said. “They were wanting to slow the pace down so they could stay with us.”
Enos said Centre hoped to frustrate and weaken his team by controlling possession of the ball and draining time off the clock.
“I don’t think they wanted to run with us very badly.”
The Cougars’ scheme seemed to be effective against the usually fast-paced Warriors. At the break, Centre held a narrow 24-23 advantage after sinking a final shot as time expired.
Though their play continued to improve through the first two quarters, the Warriors were further menaced by foul trouble. After a physical half, starters Caitlin O’Dell and Courtney Geis each had three.
In the second half, Enos saw his players’ intensity rise even further.
“We finally saw girls getting on the floor after loose balls,” he said. “That was something we really harped on throughout the season but never really saw much gain in.
“Our defense got better yet, and they were still playing the same slow-down ballgame.”
Marion’s aggressiveness paid off, forcing numerous Centre turnovers. The Warriors were quick to capitalize on Centre’s mistakes, outscoring the Cougars 15-4 in the third quarter and 18-14 in the fourth.
“For us, I thought it was a very big win because Centre was not that bad of a ball club, and they jumped on us early,” Enos said. “They made us play a different type of game than we’re used to playing, and we adapted to that.”
Brandi Peterie-Shipman had a strong performance for the Warriors, leading her team with 17 points and a commanding 15 rebounds. In addition, Peterie-Shipman snatched five steals.
“I thought (Brandi) actually played very well,” Enos said. “I think she was trying very hard to do what we’ve been asking her to do all season and that’s really be a threat inside.
“She had a very good game.”
Sarah Williams followed suit, earning 10 points on 6-for-7 shooting from the line. Williams also had seven rebounds. Amy Tajchman and Emmy Bowers each had nine points.
As a team, Marion scored on 18 of 56 shots (32 percent) from the field and 19 of 33 attempts (58 percent) from the line.
“Centre is a pretty big rival of Marion, but all things considered, I thought it was a very big win for us mentally,” Enos said.”We just kind of took care of business.”
Warriors girls finish fourth at Eli J. Walter Invitational
