Desperation 7-0, 15-second run not enough for Marion girls
Staff writer
Reggie Miller would have stood and applauded. Down 10 with less than a minute left, the Marion Warriors girls’ basketball team turned what had been a teeter-totter of a second half into a frenetic finish.
They couldn’t complete the comeback and lost 44-49 against Bennington. But for a moment there, head coach Kelly Robson said, it looked like his girls might pull it off.
Down 37-47, Erika Hess drained a 3-pointer, her first points of the night, with 47.6 seconds left. Marion came with heavy full-court pressure, Bennington lost the ball and immediately fouled Elizabeth Meyer, who had scooped it up. She made two free throws. Bennington inbounded and again the pressure forced a turnover along the baseline, which was finished by a Kourtney Hansen layup.
It was a 7-0 Marion run spanning all of 15 seconds.
It was all the Warriors had in them, though, as they couldn’t score the rest of the way.
“Those girls that were out there just kept going and kept going and kept going,” Robson said.
Junior Bailey Robson and senior Julia Hall had fouled out, as early foul trouble caught up with both girls late. Both teams were frustrated with the officiating throughout the night.
“I felt like we were playing decent defense with our hands up and just kept getting called for that,” Robson said. “On the other hand, on the offensive end, we couldn’t seem to convince ourselves to go do the same thing.”
Meyer led the Warriors in scoring off the bench with 13 points, and Hansen added 12. Kayl Schlachter led the Bulldogs with 23 points, many of those coming from the free-throw line.
Bennington point guard Jayme Sloan kept the Warriors off balance most of the night, Robson said. It wasn’t until the end when pressure forced Bennington into consecutive turnovers that the Warriors had any luck.
“We couldn’t play that hard the whole game, I don’t think that’s possible,” Robson said of the last-minute pressure. “But there for that little stretch of time we can do that, we kept the ball away from (Sloan) and forced her into a turnover.”
Tuesday at Moundridge
Marion couldn’t end its losing skid Tuesday at Moundridge, falling 46-31 in the contest. The loss was Marion’s fifth straight since claiming third place at the Cougar Classic.
Kourtney Hansen led the Warriors with 14 points. Marion trailed for most of the game, but had a 6-2 run out of halftime to make it 27-24, but from there Moundridge pulled away.
Marion hosts Ell-Saline on Friday looking to keep its streak from getting to six games.