Eric Vogel opened the second quarter with a layup-and-1 that closed the gap to 18-16. Vogel caught a defensive rebound on Halstead?s possession and was rewarded with a game-tying short-range jump shot on the offensive end.
Halstead crashed the offensive boards on its ensuing possession, taking a 20-18 lead on Derek Grant?s putback.
After a Warriors turnover, Halstead all but handed the ball back to Marion, but avoided losing what turned out to be a crucial jump ball by calling a timeout with 6:16 to go in the second.
The time out also allowed Halstead to restore its faltering offensive organization to confidence by springing Tyler Glassco open for a look at a right wing 3-pointer.
Glassco drilled it for a 23-18 Dragons lead, and Halstead shot the lights out to close the frame.
Boulet hit a 3-pointer and a long 2-pointer, and Simon McKee twice drained triples from the center of the arc: once with two minutes left, and once after Halstead killed enough of the clock to ensure that their shot would be the last of the half.
Trailing 36-26 to start the second half, Marion bagged an early layup but sputtered to a 12-point deficit that mushroomed to 20 during a rash of turnovers late in the frame.
Luke Gordon stopped the hemorrhaging with a baseline jumper with less than a minute left, and Hett sniffed out a Halstead turnover to deny the Dragons a quarter-ending shot.
Gordon hit another baseline jumper to start the fourth, and scored a mid-range jumper that made it 55-41 early in the fourth.
But Halstead again called an early timeout to reorganize, and the coaching move paid off with Glassco?s second triple followed by Jared Regehr effectively ending the night for both sides? starters by taking a charge from Hett with 4:21 to go.
Hett totaled 17 points and Vogel totaled 12?11 of which came in the first half.
Collegiate?Marion held its ground in the first quarter, trailing by five after the first break. But the Spartans blew the game open with a 17-8 run in the second quarter, and outscored the Warriors 25-13 in the third.
Blake Jablonski led three Spartans in double-digits with 18 points, while Ty Fiegel scored 13 and Andrew Hourani scored 12.
Wil Case led Marion?s scorers with 11 points, while senior starters Elliot Hett and Luke Gordon were limited to seven points apiece.
Coming?Marion hosted Sterling Tuesday and will host Hesston Friday.
