Trojans rough up Warriors
Vogel's 22-point effort is not enough
Sports reporter
Despite a huge first half from senior center Dale Vogel, the Marion Warriors lost Friday night to rival Hillsboro, 63-49.
Vogel scored his team's first 12 points, and 17 of its 23 in the first half, but Hillsboro proved too strong for the undersized Warriors.
"He was pretty good in the first half," coach Rex Ostmeyer said.
An understatement at best, but Ostmeyer knows a good first half by one player doesn't always lead to victory.
"A little travel here, a bad pass there didn't seem like much," he said. "But you can't do those things against the number three ranked team in the state."
The Warriors turned the ball over 18 times compared to 14 for Hillsboro, but it was one play in the first half which Ostmeyer said swung the momentum in the Trojans' favor.
A putback basket by Vogel cut the lead to 27-23 with just over a minute left in the half, and moved the Warrior crowd to its feet. But a Hillsboro basket and a Warrior miss gave the Trojans one last possession.
After a missed basket, the ball was heading out-of-bounds with just two seconds remaining. A Trojan player grabbed it out of mid — air, flipped the ball behind his back to a teammate, and he layed it in at the buzzer to give Hillsboro a 31-23 lead at the break.
An uncontested travel on the first possession of the second half by Marion gave the Trojans the ball, and they responded by hitting a three pointer.
"If we just take care of business at the end of the half and take care of the ball we're right in the game," Ostmeyer said.
Instead of trailing by six in the opening minutes, the Warriors quickly found themselves down 11. From there, Hillsboro held Vogel and Marion at bay, playing about even the rest of the way.
Vogel connected on just one basket in the second half, finishing with 22 points and four rebounds.
Sophomore Travis Hett scored 12 for Marion, including two three-pointers in the first half. His first came at the end of the first quarter, cutting into Hillsboro's double-digit lead to make the score 23-15.
Hett opened up the second quarter with his second three, to trim the lead to five.
Vogel then picked up his second foul at the six-minute mark and headed to the bench with Marion trailing 23-18.
When he came back with 2:57 to play, it was 27-18. He went right back to work completing a three-point play the old fashioned way, and scoring one more basket before the half ended.
Then the trouble began.
"The third quarter seemed like one mistake after another," Ostmeyer said. "We did not value the ball in the third quarter like we needed to."
Hillsboro outscored Marion 18-9 in the mistake-filled quarter, putting the game all but out of reach.
Marion outscored Hillsboro 17-14 in the final period, but it wasn't nearly enough as they fell to 2-2 in the Mid-Central Activities Association, and 6-7 overall.
Vogel and Hett were the team's two top scorers, while senior Nick Carlson and Adam Heerey added four points each. Senior Tyson Heidebrecht scored three points, and junior Jeremy Vondenkamp and sophomore Jason Hett tallied two.
Marion traveled Tuesday night to play Smoky Valley, and will host Nickerson Friday night.
