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Marion Local's Brennen Hess (3) blocks the shot of Fort Recovery's Grant Fortkamp.
FORT RECOVERY - The roller coaster that is Midwest Athletic Conference boys basketball had a loop-de-loop style of game on Friday at Fort Site Fieldhouse.
Marion Local had a 10-point lead at halftime, saw Fort Recovery come back to within a bucket in the waning seconds of the third quarter and a point in the fourth quarter before the Flyers took control to open their basketball season with a 53-39 win, handing the Indians their first loss of the season.
"Bob's got a good scrappy team," said Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller, referring to Indians coach Bob Leverette. "They had three games, we had none. You don't know what you're going to get from a tough league game on the road."
The final 10 minutes of the game proved to be a battle for the Flyers. Playing mainly a seven-player rotation, two Flyer starters picked up their fourth fouls in the third quarter.
Then there was the 3-point shooting, or more to the point, the attempt of 3-point shooting. The Flyers were 1-of-22 from behind the arc on the night, with Marion's career trey leader Grant Kremer missing all eight of his tries.
Marion Local's Brayden Mescher (32) shoots over Fort Recovery's Douglas Bihn.
"We overcame foul trouble from our senior leader Brayden Mescher (along with sophomore Brennen Hess) and overcame 1-of-22," said Goettemoeller. "Had we hit a few early, it could have been a 16-17 point game at the half."
Marion had inklings of putting the game away early. After Breaker Jutte tied the game at 10-all with 3:40 remaining in the opening stanza, the Flyers rattled off six straight to end the have to go up 16-10, then Kale Ahrens started the second quarter with a bucket to make it 18-10 before Brody Barga snapped the five-plus minute cold spell. Marion added another 6-0 run to double up the Indians 24-12 with three minutes left in the first half and took a 26-16 lead at the half.
Fort Recovery's Breaker Jutte tries to put up a shot as Marion Local's Kale Ahrens defends.
But Fort Recovery was not in the mood to concede. Slowly but surely, the Indians clawed back in the second half. Grant Fortkamp got a hoop-and-harm 3-point play to trim the margin to seven at 28-21. After Ahrens got it back to nine, A Jutte jumper and free throws from Fortkamp and Jutte cut it to 30-26, then Douglas Bihn scored with 2:35 remaining in the third quarter to make it 30-28. Isaac Moeller hit Marion's lone trey seconds later to push the lead to five, but a Barga free throw and a bucket by Hudson Overman made it 33-31 with 19 seconds left. Just before the horn, Kremer sank a pair of free throws to give Marion a 35-31 lead with eight minutes to play.
"Like good teams do, you knew they were going to make a run," Goettemoeller said of Fort Recovery.
After some back and fourth, Overman knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:13 to play to get Fort Recovery to within one at 36-37, but Ahrens came through again with a bucket to make it a three-point game with 5:49 to play. Slowly but surely, the Flyers started to pull away with Buckets by Mescher, Oliver Huelsman and Luke Everman made the score 47-37 with just under two minutes to play. The Idians managed just one more bucket as the Flyers held on.
Mescher, who played the final 11 minutes of the game with four fouls and did not pick up the fifth, led Marion with 17 points. Ahrens came up big on both sides of the court, adding 13 points to go with nine rebounds, sharing the game lead with teammate Everman.
"I want to single out Kale, he had a whale of a game on the boards," said Goettemoeller, whose squad outboarded Fort Recovery 42-33. "On both sides of the ball, we had kids make plays. Normally we have to have a kid like Brayden on the floor, but we were able to overcome that tonight."
Fortkamp led Fort Recovery with 11 points. Jutte added nine points.
Marion will have a week off before game number two, traveling to the Barn to face New Knoxville in more MAC competition. Fort Recovery is back home at Fort Site Fieldhouse tonight as the Bradford Railroaders travels north.
