Warrior girls drop MCAA league games to Panthers and Vikings

ORIGINALLY WRITTEN ERIN RICHMOND
The Marion girls came up a point short in a vigorously played game against Nickerson Friday, losing to the Panthers 45-44.

Nickerson scored the first two baskets of the game before Erica Geis put the Warriors on the board. The Panthers slowly began pulling away as the game progressed and maintained a 20-12 lead at halftime.

“Coach (Daryl Enos) told us we were just going through the motions and not really playing,” said Warrior senior Toni Gordon. “He tried to motivate us and told us if we wanted this win, we were going to have to step it up.”

The Warriors came out fired up and began closing in on Nickerson with a jump shot by Allie Maddox. The Warriors took their first lead of the game at the 3:15 mark, 25-24.

But the Panthers went on another run to pull ahead 30-25 at the final break.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Melisa Bryant made a 3-pointer followed closely by Maddox’s seventh basket of the night.

With 2:28 left in the game, Gordon brought Marion back to within three points with a basket, and the Warriors immediately called a timeout with the score 39-36.

When play resumed, Maddox was fouled immediately by Emily Arneson and made both free throws to narrow the deficit to one.

Melissa Wilson and Bryant each scored two points for Nickerson to widen the gap to five points with 24.5 seconds to go.

Following an Enos timeout, Maddox took the inbounds pass, flew to the other end of the court and sank a 3-pointer with 19.1 seconds left to pull Marion to within 43-41.

Geis then fouled, sending Nickerson to the line. Chelsi Farney sank both baskets, pushing the Panthers’ free-throw accuracy to 93 percent and the score to 45-41.

Following the Warriors last timeout with 8.5 seconds remaining, Marion inbounded the ball to Maddox, who sank another 3-pointer with 3.3 seconds to play.

When Nickerson inbounded the ball, Maddox got a hand on it for a jump-ball call. Possession was awarded to the Warriors with 1.9 seconds left.

But with no timeouts remaining and tough defense by the Panthers, the Warriors were unable to make a last-second shot, leaving the final score 45-44.

Maddox finished with 27 points, including 24 from the field and three free throws.

“I was just on tonight, and always knowing where I was on the court helped a lot,” said the senior.

The leading scorer for Nickerson was Farney with 18.

Smoky Valley-A 13-point Smoky Valley edge in the second quarter fueled the Vikings’ 60-47 win over Marion Tuesday in Marion.

The Warriors trailed 10-6 after one quarter but outscored the Vikings 19-10 in the second period to claim a 25-20 halftime lead.

Following the pivotal third quarter, the Vikings outscored Marion 18-13 in the final period to nail down the 13-point win.

Erin Carr scored 14 points and Allie Maddox 13 to pace the Warriors.

Coming-The Warriors were scheduled to play at Hesston on Tuesday. On Friday, they will play host Lyons (1-14) for Marion’s annual homecoming contest.

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