Staff writer
Marion High School girls basketball coach summed up championship basketball after the Warriors lost, 56-45, to Hays Thomas More Prep on Saturday.
“Somebody’s got to feel bad,” he said.
When the Warrior team left the floor, many in tears, I could only feel that they deserved better.
This was the same basketball team that played the No. 1 seeded Monarchs to a dead heat in the second half, tying the score at 33 and bringing the game to a 1-point margin with 3 minutes and 41 seconds left on the clock.
The Warriors matched TMP shot for shot — Lindsay Hett answering a 3-pointer with her own long-distance bomb, Julia Zeiner making her signature tightly contested 10-foot shots from around the rim, and Kayley Heerey shooting 3s with her characteristic confidence.
This was the same Warrior team that went from sixth seed to the championship game in two days of basketball. The Warriors defeated an 18-5 Beloit team, 49-44, and then knocked off 21-1 Winchester Jefferson County North in a 42-41 last-second thriller.
The Warriors weren’t even supposed to make it out of substate. One foolish sports writer (sorry, ladies) thought that 20-1 Burlington would be too much for the Warriors to handle, but Lindsay Hett proved that Marion belonged by hitting a fade away shot to give the Warriors the win, 54-52.
This was the same Warrior team that ran through a tumultuous MCAA league schedule.
Let’s examine the girls’ losses. The Warriors lost by single digits to Hesston in overtime at home and Hillsboro at home. Marion hung with Collegiate through halftime in Wichita. The Warriors took eventual champion TMP to overtime in a semifinal game of the Hillsboro Trojan Classic.
A loss to Nickerson is the only blemish on Marion’s schedule, and for the record, Nickerson is a 4A team.
Speaking of 4A teams, the Warriors defeated Hesston twice, in the third-place game of the Trojan classic and with a hostile crowd in the wings at Hesston.
By the way, the Swathers were good enough to make the 4A state tournament.
This was the same team that battled injuries all season long. Hett overcame a bum ankle twice: at the beginning of the season and after stepping on a Swather’s foot in the game at Hesston. Heerey suffered a shoulder injury in her shooting arm in the first game against Hesston. Sophomore center — and the tallest girl to play in the 3A state tournament — Whitney Gordon tweaked her knee after a victory at Smoky Valley late in the season.
This was the same team that started five seniors all year long. Bridget Lundy, Kristen Steinborn, Heerey, Hett, and Zeiner were Marion’s starters throughout the season. The group was experienced — most of them seeing significant playing time even as freshmen.
The tight-knit group of seniors had played sports together since the fourth grade.
After the win against JCN, Heerey and Hett both talked about aspiring to reach the state championship tournament. They said they watched the MHS girls teams growing up and knew they wanted to play in Hutchinson some day.
It pained me to see those girls walk off the court with tears in their eyes — their experience at least momentarily tainted by defeat.
The girls should feel nothing but pride in their efforts all season long.
Regardless of what the scoreboard read at the end of the game, they played like champions.