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MHS Warriors defeat Chase County

Sports reporter

Travis Hett dropped in 19 points, and Jason Hett and Emmanuel Jackson each added 12, as the Marion High School boys' basketball team opened its season Friday with a win over Chase County at Marion High School Gymnasium.

The Warriors shackled Bulldog shooters in the first quarter, allowing just three points, as they bolted to a 17-3 advantage.

Chase County shot a woeful 19 percent from the field in the first half, while Marion drained 41 percent of its shots.

The Warriors cooled down in the second quarter, when Chase County switched to a zone defense. After a Jason Hett bucket at the 6:14 mark increased the Warrior lead to 21-5, Marion only could muster one more field goal before halftime.

Meanwhile, the Bulldog offense, led by Brian Palermo and the three-point shooting of Trevor Johnson, managed to trim the Chase County deficit to 10 at the break.

A Johnson three-pointer at the start of the second half brought the Bulldogs to within seven points, 25-18, which would prove to be the closest Chase County would come to threatening the Warrior lead.

Justin Heidebrecht, Jason Hett, Travis Hett, Calvin Jeffrey, and Jackson all contributed scores as Marion pushed out to an 18-point lead, 40-22, with 1:58 remaining in the third quarter.

The Bulldogs never seriously threatened the Warriors again, although a late flurry of points allowed them to draw within 10, 61-51, by the end of the game.

Marion head coach Rex Ostmeyer welcomed the opening win, but acknowledged the Warriors had some rough edges to smooth out.

"We fouled way too much," Ostmeyer observed. "We put them at the line 28 times, which was way too much."

Chase County shot only 50 percent from the line, 14-28, to minimize the damage. Marion was perfect at the free-throw stripe, on only nine opportunities.

"We need to get to the line more," Ostmeyer said.

"We missed a truckload of inside layups, too," he added.

Ostmeyer was pleased with the fact Marion held a 43-34 rebounding edge in the contest.

"We had 33 defensive boards," he observed. "We have a goal to keep people under five offensive boards a game."

The Warriors opened play for the Inman invitational tournament Tuesday at home against Inman. Marion will continue tournament action in Inman Thursday against St. John, and Friday against Garden Plain.

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