Warrior boys survive marathon to defeat Chase County

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN TOM STOPPEL
The crowd at the Marion boys’ basketball game Friday night probably hoped the officials’ throats were sore from whistling 52 fouls in the girls’ game.

No such luck.

In the boys’ game that followed, the officials whistled 53 fouls, which resulted in 70 free throws.

The good news was the Warriors survived shaky play down the stretch to win their season opener, 63-54, over Chase County Friday at Marion.

Coach Rex Ostmeyer said the game gave his young squad a taste of varsity competition and what they need to improve.

“The win was good,” he said. “It’s nice to get that first one, especially when you don’t know what to expect.

“We have a lot of inexperienced kids, a lot of kids playing varsity for the first time,” he added. “To get a win was good even if it was ugly.”

After the visitors grabbed a quick 4-0 lead, Marion took a 6-5 lead on a bucket by Jason Hett at the 4:24 mark.

The Bulldogs stayed reasonably close to the Warriors, but never led again.

After Marion built a 20-11 lead after one quarter, Chase County countered with six straight points to whittle the Marion lead to 20-17. But Marion’s Dale Vogel scored six of his team’s final 10 points of the quarter to stake Marion to a 32-26 halftime lead.

“I thought we played pretty well in the first half for the most part,” Ostmeyer said. “I was absolutely pleased with our press. We forced them into some quick shots which is what you want a press to do.”

In the third quarter, Vogel scored eight more points, including two old-fashioned 3-point plays. Vogel finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Marion led, 44-34. But the marathon was just beginning as the teams combined to shoot 35 free throws. Marion went 9-for-18, Chase County, 10 of 17.

Ostmeyer said part of the reason for the foul-fest was his team’s inability to sustain stability on defense.

“We’re not in good enough shape yet that we couldn’t sustain our pressure in the second half and we got fatigued,” he said. “We started reaching and that put them on the foul line.”

Chase County scored only eight of its 20 points in the final period on field goals. At one point, the Bulldogs cut the Warrior lead to just two points, 55-53, with 1:10 remaining.

Sophomore Travis Hett then hit a driving layup, and followed that nine seconds later with a pair of free throws to put Marion back on top, 59-54, with 41 seconds left.

“I thought Jason (Hett) and Travis were phenomenal,” Ostmeyer said. “Jason handled the ball the whole time and Travis probably saved the game for us with four points in the last couple of minutes.”

After Chase County missed a desperation 3-pointer down the stretch, Marion added a pair of Vogel free throws in the final 10 seconds to secure the 63-54 win.

Ostmeyer said his team’s 39-37 rebounding advantage could have been much better had the Warriors executed better off their zone defense.

“We rebounded well out of our man-to-man defense, but in the second half we did poorly out of our zone-but in a zone, it’s harder to rebound,” he said. “But we got them when we needed to, late.”

Vogel’s production on offense was backed by Nick Carlson with 12 points and Travis Hett with 10.

The Warriors hit 40 percent of their shots from the field (23-57) but only two of 10 from beyond the 3-point arc.

The Bulldogs shot 24 percent from the field (14-59) and a paltry 3-of-19 from 3-point range.

Marion struggled at the line, hitting just 15 of 34 attempts (44 percent) while Chase County made 23 of 36 (64 percent).

The Warriors committed 22 turnovers to Chase County’s 15. Ostmeyer blamed his team’s turnovers on inexperience.

“Some of our guys were a little too keyed up, but they have to make the transition from a slower junior-varsity level, where you can make a soft pass, to this level,” he said.

Ostmeyer said although the game got close down the stretch, the experience of playing a close game may help the Warriors later.

“Even though we made it a little more interesting than we needed to, at least the next time they’ll have confidence that they have been in a tight game and pulled it out at the end,” he said.

“I was proud of Travis stepping up to make his free throws and Dale making a big pair late as well to seal the game. But it was very stressful there for a few minutes.”

Coming-Marion (1-0) was to play host to Burrton on Tuesday as part of the Inman preseason tournament. Marion will play at Inman on Thursday and Friday against St. John and Inman, respectively.

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