Girls earn first of season, boys raise record to 3-1

By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Neither of the Marion basketball teams took home the crown at the Marion Classic, but both teams closed the tournament in successful fashion.

The girls’ team got their first win Saturday against Peabody-Burns 48-13, while the boys finished 2-1 with a 75-18 win over Peabody-Burns.

One of the biggest challenges for the girls is limiting turnovers. They totaled 21 against Peabody-Burns, and 22 in their 47-31 loss to Wichita Home School group.

The boys’ team rebounded from Tuesday’s loss with a 60-58 win over Wichita Home School group. All three teams from Marion’s pool went 1-1, but the hometown Warriors ended up in the fifth-place game Saturday because Wichita owned the tie-breaker, and Eureka beat Marion head-to-head.

Despite their place at the end, coach Terry Edwards was happy to see his team get a pair of wins.

“Any time you can come in here and get out 2-1, that’s a good tournament,” he said. “Our pool was competitive.”

Girls

The hometown Warriors were led on offense Saturday against Peabody-Burns by Chloe Burkholder, who scored 11 points and had two 3-pointers.

“I’m glad she’s getting more confidence,” coach Kelly Robson said. “We need to be able to make something from out there.”

It was a well-rounded game for Marion, with 10 players scoring points. In addition to Burkholder’s 11, Michaela Regnier had seven, and Jayden May and Chisolm Waner had six each.

One of the talking points at halftime was playing strong defense and creating turnovers without fouling.

“We talked about fouling too much, especially 80 feet from their basket,” Robson said. “It’s one thing to pressure, but it’s another thing to always try to take the ball away from the other team. We don’t need to do that.”

After registering 13 fouls in the first half, Marion cut back to eight in the second.

During their game Thursday against Wichita Home School group, Marion’s hunger getting after the ball was on full display, despite the loss.

“We didn’t score in the first quarter and we could have just gone away,” he said. “I was proud of the girls for not going away, they kept fighting. They understand it’s going to be rough at times.”

One of the areas Marion fared well Thursday was free-throw shooting. The team hit 70 percent of their free throws against the homeschoolers with Corrina Crabb making 10 of 11 attempts.

Boys

Marion’s success against Peabody-Burns Saturday was aided by the ratio of fouls, which was severely in their favor.

“It gives us the chance to go to the line all the time and improve on our free-throw percentage,” Edwards said. “I’d have thought it would have been more even because we were pressing and trying to steal the ball.”

The team had three players finish in double digits. Sam Zinn led the way with 17, followed by Chase Stringer’s 15, and Noah Dalrymple’s 12.

Marion saw significant contributions from the bench as well, with Hunter Helmer and Brandon Nguyen each adding six points.

Helping Sam on the wing were Eli Hett and Jaxton Tracy. Hett dropped in a pair of threes for six of his eight points, while Tracy had a 3-pointer of his and two buckets with his feet on the line.

“They’re both capable of shooting the ball well,” Edwards said. “Sometimes they get in their own heads, miss once or twice, and think they can’t make a basket.”

Thursday’s game against Wichita was a nail-biter, with Marion needing every second of regulation to get their victory.

The final points came on a layup from Stinger, assisted by Zinn, when the team broke Wichita’s press.

“Chase struggled, so my comment was to get an easy one,” Edwards said. “I guess he got the easy one at the end.”