Staff writer
In its first game in nearly three weeks, the Marion High School boys’ basketball team secured a win Tuesday over league foe Canton-Galva, 44-30.
Senior Bret Voth led the Warriors with 15 points. Sophomore Mason Pedersen added 12. Marion had control for most of the game and never trailed after a Pedersen 3-pointer put the Warriors up, 10-8, in the first quarter.
“Our guys were really focused today,” head coach Jeff McMillin said. “They’ve got a lot of pride, and they know we’re not as talented as we have been, but they want to have kind of an underdog mentality, and they just fought pretty hard.”
McMillin said it was the most concerted, disciplined effort his team had put forth this season.
Marion leveraged a 13-8 lead thanks to three 3-pointers and stretched that to 19-11 before Canton-Galva closed the half with 6 straight points.
After a scoring drought kept both teams without a point for the first three minutes of the second half, the Warriors reeled off nine straight points. The run included a couple of big-bodied layups from junior Nicholas Stuchlik, who finished with 8 points.
Stuchlik and senior Jacob Baldwin led the rebounding effort for the Warriors, who were evenly matched with the Eagles in terms of size. Typically, the Warriors are the smaller team and have to compete with larger players in the paint.
The lead ballooned to 37-21 before Canton-Galva sophomore Nick Bray, who had the green light from way beyond the arc in game’s early going, hit a 3-pointer. Canton-Galva then switched to a full-court press. The Warriors handled the press fairly well, and finished the game 7-6 against the added pressure.
McMillin said he thought his team had improved overfthe holiday break, despite having a sporadic practice schedule.
“We’ve got plenty of work still to do, but it’s good to get the feeling of a victory and they fought real hard for it,” McMillin said.