Redskins rally past Flyers to take MAC lead

ST. HENRY - The sequel outdid the original.

And when end credits rolled, St. Henry had outdone Marion Local's third quarter with an even bigger fourth.

Evan Prenger scored 10 of his 20 points in the final period - including a three-pointer to put the Redskins up by four with 45 seconds left - as St. Henry outscored the Flyers 25-12 and rallied from seven points down for a 57-51 win in front of a sellout crowd at Redskin Gymnasium.

With the victory, St. Henry (11-1, 3-0) takes over sole possession of first place in the Midwest Athletic Conference. Marion drops to 9-2 and 3-1 in conference play.

"It was an excellent basketball game," St. Henry coach Eric Rosenbeck said. "Hopefully the fans think they got their money's worth."

They did.

After trailing 27-22 at halftime, Marion outscored St. Henry 17-5 in the third quarter. Ryan Bruns had consecutive buckets to pull the Flyers ahead 34-31, Luke Knapke followed with a dunk and Dustin Rethman's three-point play gave them a 39-32 lead entering the fourth.

"As it got in the third, they decided they were going to go inside and go right at us," Rosenbeck explained. "They didn't worry about their foul trouble anymore. As their offense started going, it led to their defense getting a little more active. With that length and athleticism, they rushed us."

St. Henry trimmed the deficit quickly in the fourth by forcing three turnovers in the first two minutes. Evan Lefeld's pair at the line tied the score at 43-all with 6:14 left. Prenger canned his first fourth-quarter three-ball off a pass from Jesse Niekamp with 2:20 left to put his team in front 48-47 - the first time the Redskins had led since midway through the third. Marion Local worked some high-low action from Knapke to Bruns to take the lead back 30 seconds later. It was the last time the Flyers held an advantage.

Ryan Mikesell was fouled after collecting his own rebound and hit 2-of-2 at the line. Prenger delivered his dagger from the corner soon after.
  "Evan hit some huge shots," Rosenbeck said. "He's a coaches dream, because he does everything you ask. He is no drama. He is everything that you can ask for. He works his tail off in practice. He doesn't need pampered. For him to be rewarded for that hard work in such a big game and a great atmosphere is awesome."

"We had a seven-point lead to start the fourth quarter. We had them right where we wanted them," Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. "We even had the ball to start. They had no answer for our big guys inside. We failed miserably as a coaching staff and as a team to get the ball where it needed to go."

Bruns (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Knapke (18 points, 11 rebounds) were beasts inside all night. Marion held a 34-18 rebounding edge but had 25 turnovers compared with St. Henry's 10 and shot 5-of-13 at the charity stripe.

"There isn't any question, that's one that got away," Goettemoeller said. "First of all, you give St. Henry a lot of credit. They are very well coached. They get everything out of their talent. Certainly their pressure had a lot to do with the mistakes we made. However, I told our team before the game that the team that made the least mistakes was going to win."

Mikesell was limited to a season-low 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting, but for the second straight Friday night, the supporting cast of St. Henry stepped up in a big way. Rosenbeck credited Caleb Bender for a big defensive effort in the fourth.

"Caleb Bender needs commended because he's the one who started to create some of that havoc on top of the zone in the fourth quarter," Rosenbeck said. "That got us out and running and we were able to convert."

Mitch Stammen scored nine points, Evan Lefeld added seven and Prenger shot 4-of-5 from the three-point line.

"I think that it says we are a very solid basketball team," Rosenbeck said. "Our guys, whether it's the 12th guy who hardly ever gets in, whether it's Ryan Mikesell, are all held accountable the same way in practice. We believe that builds a stronger team."

The Redskins play at Ansonia tonight.

Marion Local travels to play Jackson Center tonight and then hosts Versailles next Friday.

"We've just got to learn from this," Goettemoeller said. "We want to get to the next level. Our goals are very lofty this year. I'm not sure about the MAC race. We don't have any margin for error anymore. It's just obvious - we didn't get the ball to the low post enough and we turned the ball over too much. We were 2-for-9 from the line in the first half. We made countless mistakes in all facets of the game. Some of that's due to them, some of that's due to the fact that we didn't handle adversity well."