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Huge second half leads to Warriors first victory

Sports reporter

It took a little while, but the Marion High School boys' basketball team looked a lot like the team its coach predicted Friday, knocking off Chase County 64-41.

The Warriors and Bulldogs were tied at 25 going into the half, but MHS outscored Chase County 39-16 in the second half to improve to 1-0.

Head coach Rex

Ostmeyer utilized his team's athleticism and quickness by throwing a full-court press at the Bulldogs, forcing 26 turnovers and eventually wearing them down.

"Our plan from the beginning was to make their big guys run, and wear them out with the press," Ostmeyer said. "And I think it worked pretty well."

When the Bulldogs were fresh they put pressure on the visiting Warriors, jumping ahead 4-0. Sophomore Calvin Jeffrey kept Chase County from pulling away after nailing a three-pointer to cut the deficit to one.

Another newcomer to varsity, junior Emmanuel Jackson, fired the team up with a steal and two buckets early on to give MHS a 10-6 lead.

Marion managed one more basket the rest of the first quarter, and trailed 13-12 after allowing seven more points.

The teams battled back and forth in the second quarter with the Warriors outscoring the Bulldogs 13-12 to knot the score at halftime. Chase County ended the first half with an allyoop layup, and seemed to go into the break with the momentum.

Things aren't always as they seem.

MHS came out firing in the second with nine straight points, seven from junior guard Jason Hett.

He would finish with 25 points, (19 in the second half) eight rebounds, and three assists.

Hett attributed his and the team's slow start to first-game jitters.

"We were shaky, but we settled down and got our offense going and took pretty good shots," he said.

After Chase County knocked down a free throw to cut the lead to 34-26, Jackson was called for a block to the dismay of the Warrior crowd.

It appeared he had his feet set, and the Warrior faithful weren't afraid to let the referees know. Jeffrey was called for a technical after the play for allegedly saying something to an official.

After making the free throw from the blocking foul, the Bulldogs missed both technical free throws, and MHS went on to score 30 of the game's next 42 points.

"I started telling them we need to use this as motivation," Ostmeyer said. "That type of thing can happen once in a while. I don't know if he (Jeffrey) said anything, but either way we reacted well to it."

Hett wasn't the only Warrior to shine. Junior Travis Hett contributed 14 points, nine rebounds, and four assists. Defensively he added two steals and blocks.

In just 10 minutes Jackson scored six points, grabbed three rebounds, dished out two assists, and recorded four steals. All without committing one turnover.

Six other Warriors scored and all 12 saw some action in the opening-season game.

After losing most of its height from last year, Ostmeyer worked this off-season on conditioning, and playing to his team's strengths of speed and depth.

"That's going to be what we do this year," he said. "We are just going to have to make people work for everything, and knock back off until the final buzzer sounds."

The Warriors take part this week in the Inman tournament against Inman, St. John, and Garden Plain, before returning home Tuesday to play league foe Halstead.

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