The Marion girls dropped Tuesday?s home contest against Sedgwick by a 41-20 margin, while the Marion boys got back on the upward swing with a 59-33 victory over the Cardinals.
GIRLS ? Despite improved penetration into the lane by the Warriors, Marion could not get its shots to fall Tuesday. Kelli Hess led the Warriors? with eight points, but Marion struggled against a Cardinal team with height on its roster.
After falling behind 0-2 to start the game, Erin Meierhoff tied the game with a basket at the 6:35 mark. A consecutive score by Kaelyn Thierolf gave the Warriors their first and only lead of the night, 4-2. The Cardinals surged to regain a 6-4 lead.
Sedgwick scored the second quarter?s first points at the charity stripe, but Hess scored at the 6:21 mark to again bring the Warriors within two, 8-6. Marion turnovers and missed shots, however, contributed to an 11-0 run by the Cardinals. Meierhoff broke the streak with a basket at 1:30, but Sedgwick boasted a 19-8 lead and went into halftime with a 21-8 advantage.
After the half, Megan Richmond narrowed Sedgwick?s lead to 10 points with a shot behind the arc at the 7:12 mark, but the Cardinals outscored Marion 8-3 in the quarter to push the lead to 29-11. Marion enjoyed a 5-0 run to open the final quarter courtesy of a Hess free throw and consecutive basket followed by two free throws from Katey Ehrlich. But Sedgwick answered with a 5-0 run before Hess drained a three-point shot with 2:38 remaining in the game, bringing the score to 34-19. Ehrlich scored Marion?s final point from the free-throw line, but Sedgwick enjoyed a 21-point lead when time expired.
BOYS ? The Warriors came ready to play Tuesday, bursting out of the gate with a 6-0 run on their way to a 26-point victory. In a defense-oriented first quarter, the Warriors forced turnovers and recorded steals to take an 11-3 lead on a Jacob Harper basket with 10 seconds left in the period. A long-range Sedgwick basket at the buzzer narrowed Marion?s lead to 11-6. In the second quarter, the Warriors outscored Sedgwick 14-9 and surged to a 25-15 lead on a 6-0 run to end the half.
After the break, Jordan Hett nailed two shots behind the arc in less than one minute, and Harper added two points after a steal for a 33-16 Marion lead at 4:58. The teams then traded scores, but Marion ended the third quarter with a 5-0 run to secure a 41-24 advantage going into the final quarter of play.
Marion scored twice as many points as Sedgwick in the final quarter (18-9), opening with a 12-0 burst on scores by Hett, Taylor Heidebrecht, Wiley Lundy and Austin Pedersen to boast a 29-point lead, 53-24, at the 4:59 mark. The teams once again traded scores, until Bret Voth landed a traditional three-point play at the 1:58 mark and followed with a basket 30 seconds later to give Marion a 59-28 lead. The Cardinals scored the final two baskets to narrow the final margin to 26 points.
