Staff writer
Despite a comeback in the third quarter that brought Marion within 9 points, the Marion High School boys basketball team lost Friday to Berean Academy, 58-34.
Marion started the second quarter down 22-5, with Jacob Harper scoring all of the team’s points. A fade-away 2-pointer and a 3-pointer by Jordan Versch helped bring Marion within 16 points at halftime, 31-15.
Marion switched to man-to-man defense and started to press, which temporarily stifled Berean, especially top scorers Karlin Wiebe, who had 15 points, and Cameron Dunn, 14. A long-range 3 by Versch, a traditional 3-point play by Harper, and two baskets by Jordan Hett brought Marion within 9, 34-25.
Berean eventually modified its offense. Instead of looking for players back cutting along the baseline, Wiebe and Dunn kicked the ball back out to open wing players for jump shots. Berean scored 19 points in the fourth quarter to run away with the victory.
Berean’s offense was patience personified. In the first two quarters, Berean players would work the ball around the perimeter of Marion’s 2-3 zone until they found a lapse in the defense.
“It was a good, fundamentally sound team,” Marion coach Jeff McMillin said of Berean. “We’d play well for 15, 20 seconds but they were patient enough to work for their shots. They found the lapses every time.”
Berean shot 50 percent for the game. Eight Berean players scored. In a stark contrast, only three players scored for Marion: Harper, 13; Hett, 12; and Versch, 9.
“They’re not 15-0 for nothing,” McMillin said. “They’ve won 40 of their last 41 games.”