Warriors experience it all during sub-state run
Sports reporter
It started off as a game of runs.
Marion High School girls' basketball team found itself down 5-0 Saturday at Hillsboro High School one minute into its first sub-state championship basketball game in 16 years.
Three minutes later, after reeling off 12 straight points of their own, the Warriors were up seven and had the Marion crowd on its feet.
However, the Trojans of Southeast of Saline would score the final 10 points of the first quarter, to take a 17-14 lead.
The Warriors hung around in the first half despite scoring just nine points in the second quarter, holding the Trojans to the same amount.
But the second half was a different story.
SE jumped ahead by 16 with a 13-3 run, and the Warriors never recovered, losing 70-44.
The Trojans forced 20 MHS turnovers and scored 25 points off of them.
They also out-rebounded Marion by 16, and took 19 more shots.
"Southeast is a pretty darn good team," MHS head coach Randy Savage said. "We punched them in the nose pretty hard, but they got up and punched back."
Still, the Warriors felt they could play with the Trojans, and weren't happy with just being in the game.
After a victory against Remington in the second round, Savage said the girls were happy, but they also knew business was unfinished.
"They said, 'One more and we can go to Hutchinson and we don't have to pay to get in,'" he said of the 3A state tournament site.
But the upperclassmen-laden Trojans used their experience to wear down the younger Warriors, especially with a half-court press that threw Marion off its game.
"We don't work on a half-court press a lot," Savage said. "They found what we hadn't worked on lately."
But it was not all bad for Marion.
Sophomore Julia Zeiner led the Warriors with 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting, to go along with three blocks and four steals.
Fellow sophomore Lindsay Hett had 10 points, four assists, three blocks, and four steals.
Kayley Heerey and Kimber Hardey had six points, Kristen Steinborn three, and Amanda Richmond two.
Seniors Hardey and Helmer will be missed next year according to Savage.
"They do a lot of things that don't show up in the boxscore, and [they're] not going to be that easy to replace," Savage said.
He praised Hardey for her hustle usually unmatched by anyone on the court, and Helmer for her coachability.
With the talented sophomore class of Heerey, Hett, Zeiner, Steinborn, Bridget Lundy, and the injured Emmali Kelsey back for two more years, this team could be downright scary with more experience.
"We will be better next year," Savage said. "But I don't know if that will translate into more wins."
What he does know is this team, which won two games a year ago, exceeded the expectations of many.
"I could not be more proud of the way they handled themselves," Savage said of dealing with a new coach this season. "It was more learning, than repetitions this year."
Marion 67, Hillsboro 55
The sub-state run began Feb. 25 against Hillsboro, and Hett had the game of her life.
But she knew that really didn't matter.
What did was the scoreboard.
Hett's 26 points helped steer the Marion High School girls' basketball team to its first sub-state victory since 2004.
The sophomore scored 19 points in the first half, and also finished with seven steals, six rebounds, and just one turnover.
"That was the best game I've played all season," Hett said. "But we as a team all wanted to go home with a win, and have a good ending, especially against our rival team."
It also was special considering it was the final scheduled varsity game in the current gymnasium, as the school awaits construction of a new one.
But the players and coaches weren't as concerned with that, as much as just winning the game.
"I woke up nervous," Helmer said.
Hardey was as well.
"I haven't brought my inhaler to a game the entire year, and I thought I needed it today," she said.
The duo contributed 12 points, seven rebounds, and three assists to the victory.
All the contributions were needed as the team's two top scorers, Zeiner and Heerey, were held scoreless in the first half.
"That's an uphill battle," Savage said.
But he gave credit to Hardey, Helmer, Richmond, and Steinborn who helped keep the team's lead up at the half.
Along with Hett, they actually helped to increase it.
The Warriors led by just one after the first quarter, but the lead was pushed to 31-22 at halftime.
Hett was definitely the spark plug early however, connecting on a four-point play to tie the game at 10.
"That was awesome," Hett said. "That just got me fired up and I could tell it got the fans fired up."
She came right back down on the next possession and nailed another three-pointer to give MHS a 13-10 lead.
"She played a heck of a game," Savage said.
As a team the Warriors shot 57 percent in the first half, and although they cooled off in the second, they connected on 20-of-27 free throws.
Zeiner, who had been scoreless, hit 11-15 from the charity stripe in the second half, and Heerey, who's only basket was a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to make the score 46-33 in favor of Marion, connected on all six of her free-throw attempts.
"It seemed like everyone just played a level-headed game," Hardey said.
That was true down the stretch when the Warrior girls kept hitting their free throws (26-of-38 in the game) while Dakota Kaufman tried to bring the Trojans back.
The six-foot sophomore center had 26 points and 12 rebounds (16 and eight in the second half), and helped trim the lead to 55-49 with a three-point play with three minutes, 44 seconds left in the game.
"I didn't want to play Hillsboro because they have [post players]," Savage said. "We don't match-up. I would have rather played somebody else, but it worked out."
While Kaufman had her way, other post players Amy Neufeld and Kassidi Luthi only combined for six points and seven rebounds.
It helped that the Warriors used an up-tempo offense and a pressure defense at times to wear down the slower Trojans.
MHS forced 24 turnovers and scored 26 points off of them.
"If we can play this tempo with just 14 turnovers
Along with Hett and Zeiner, Heerey contributed nine points, while Hardey and Helmer (three assists) each had six, and Steinborn added five.
His team proved him right at least one more night, when they took on the Remington Broncos in the second round of the tournament.
Marion 62, Remington 52
The euphoria of the Hillsboro victory and the fact Marion was playing in its first second-round sub-state game in four years, wore off quickly Friday as Remington jumped ahead of the Warriors 12-4 after the first quarter.
Four points from Hett and Zeiner to start the quarter cut the lead to four, but Remington ran off five straight to push the lead back up to nine.
MHS then saw Remington's 5-0 run and raised them another 13 points.
A Lundy basket started an 18-1 run that was capped off by a Heerey jumper.
MHS now led 29-18 and there was no question what side the momentum meter was pointing.
Heerey nailed back-to-back three-pointers during the run, and accounted for a total of nine points.
Marion's pressure defense forced multiple turnovers, and Zeiner seemed to get her hand on the ball nearly every time Remington had the ball.
Twice she stole the ball before the Broncos pushed it past half court, leading to a layup of her own, and an assist on another.
She finished with 23 points and 13 rebounds.
When they fell behind early, Zeiner said Coach Savage had confidence in them.
"He just told us to get our heads in the game and watch our passes," she said. "And, 'I know we can do it.'"
The confidence continued through the quarter as Heerey nailed another three-pointer with 28 seconds before halftime, and the Warriors had a 34-24 lead.
MHS shot 54 percent in the first half, but with the lead didn't have to match that in the second.
The girls connected on just 9-of-26 shots, but also 9-of-15 free throws, to hold the Broncos at bay.
Zeiner's basket on a pass from Steinborn with 2:36 left in the third quarter gave MHS its largest lead of the game at 47-31.
But Remington had one more run left.
The Broncos scored the final five points of the third quarter, and the first four of the fourth to cut the lead to 47-40.
Savage called a timeout to regroup.
The Warriors scored the next three points to stretch the lead to 10, and the closest the Broncos would get was 55-46, before MHS held on for the victory.
"They were a pretty giddy bunch on the bus ride home," Savage said.
And they had reason to be.
It was the first time a MHS girls' team advanced to a sub-sate championship game since the state-qualifying one during the 1991-92 season.
"Marion hasn't done this well in sub-state in a while, so it feels really good," Zeiner said.
She attributed it to the confidence team has in itself, even trailing by eight early in the game.
"Usually we can get back in the game — and we did," she said.
Heerey was next in scoring behind Zeiner with 18 points, eight rebounds, and three assists.
Hett slowed down a bit from the Hillsboro game, but still contributed nine points and five steals.
"She just runs the floor so well," Savage said.
Lundy and Amanda Richmond each had four points, Steinborn added three points, and Hardey had one.
The victory gave Marion a 12-10 record on the season, that would fall to 12-11 after the loss to SE of Saline.
