Lady Trojans squeak by Warriors
The Marion High School girls basketball team opened its season Friday with a one-point loss at the hands of inter-county rival Hillsboro, 36-37.
The Warriors jumped out of the gate early, holding a 7-4 lead with 3:43 left in the first quarter.
But a couple of minutes later, Hillsboro was within striking distance. An inside shot gave the Trojans an 8-7 lead. One more shot by post player Katie Fast and Hillsboro had the 10-7 lead at the end of the first.
Then the second quarter came — but the scoring didn't. For almost the entire first half of the quarter, both teams couldn't hit a shot. It wasn't until the 4:40 mark that Marion's Brandi Peterie-Shipman hit a two-pointer to break the dry stretch, bringing the Warriors to within two.
But with 2:05 left, April Funk's steal led to a layup, and the Trojans pushed their lead to 12-9. At halftime, Hillsboro led 14-11.
The third quarter began with a back-and-forth battle. A pumped-up Marion quickly brought the game to a 14-14 tie, just before a shot by Emily Ratzlaff gave Hillsboro a two-point edge.
The Warriors came back to tie things up at 16, but Hillsboro soon had the lead again 18-16 with 4:21 to go in the period.
A pair of Marion free throws tied the game again at 18-18, but that's when Hillsboro started widening the gap. Ratzlaff's layup brought the Trojan lead to 26-20, and they kept a 26-22 lead at the end of the quarter.
Hillsboro kept the lead afloat into the fourth quarter. With three minutes remaining in the game, they held a 32-24 lead.
But the Warriors weren't giving in. With 50 seconds left, Hillsboro held a narrow five-point lead, 34-29. That made it just a two-possession game for Marion.
The Warriors' Krista Zogelman took that last minute to step up, pushing inside just seconds after an inbound pass to make it 36-33 with 8.7 seconds left. With 6.6 seconds to go, Marion was forced to foul Funk, sending her to the free-throw line.
Funk made the first foul shot, and that was enough to make it a two-possession game for the Warriors.
Marion hustled the ball down court, where Heidi Zogelman hit a last-second three-point shot — but then the buzzer sounded, and the game was over. Hillsboro had the 37-36 win.
"I think we've got all the nuts and bolts there to be a good ball team," said head coach Daryl Enos. "We just didn't look very good. I think we got caught up in the 'Hillsboro mystique'."
Dealing with a new offense and defense, the Marion girls had many things to remember.
"We just didn't execute them well at all," Enos said. "We didn't shoot enough and when we did we didn't shoot well."
Although the team may have lacked some polish, they were able to rally in the final moments of the game.
"We were down seven points with under a minute to go when they brought it back to within one point," Enos said.
Enos said he thinks the girls have the capability of putting many more points on the board. "I'd like to bump that up as the year continues."
Although in his first year at Marion, Enos has numerous years of coaching under his belt including 15 years at Lewis.
"We've got a good bunch of girls," he said. "We've just got some growing pains to deal with."
During the game, the Lady Warriors made 57 percent of their free throws, and had a 29 percent field goal percentage.
Marion-36, Hillsboro-37
Marion 7 4 11 14 36
Hillsboro 10 4 12 11 37
Points — Krista Zogelman, 15; Heidi Zogelman, 3; Amy Tajchman, 6; Amy Bowers, 4; Brandi Peterie Shipman, 8.
Rebounds — Bowers, 8; Peterie-Shipman, 7; K. Zogelman, 6; Tajchman, 6.
Steals — Tajchman, 5.
