MHS girls 1-2 on week
Sports reporter
It was about as good of a 1-2 week as you could have.
The Marion High School girls' basketball team defeated Smoky Valley Feb. 12 at home, but lost Friday on the road to Collegiate and Saturday at Haven.
Collegiate and Haven are the top two teams in the Mid-Central Activities Association.
MHS was third with a 7-1 record, but the two losses dropped the team to 7-3 in the league, and 10-9 overall.
The Warriors played their final game of the season Tuesday at Hesston, but results were not available at press time.
The victory against Smoky Valley was the final regular season game for the girls in the current gymnasium.
Julia Zeiner led Marion with 17 points and eight rebounds. Kayley Heerey had 13 and nine, and Kimber Hardey added 10 points and six rebounds.
Senior Lauren Helmer, who has been battling illness the past few games, contributed two assists.
Rhys Pihl, who scored 30 in a December victory against Marion, was held to 21 points on 7-23 shooting, but did add 11 rebounds.
Trailing 12-7 after one quarter, Marion turned it on with 23 points in the second, and led 30-23 at halftime.
They would never trail again, en route to their seventh victory in their first eight league games.
"We're feeling good right now," sophomore point guard Lindsay Hett said.
And that was after the two losses to Collegiate and Haven.
"We're still a very good team," she said, "and we've improved a lot."
That could be an understatement considering they have gone from 1-5 to the possibility of playing host to a first-round sub-state game.
If the cards fall right on the final game of the season, the Warriors will be able to play one final game in the current gymnasium.
Head coach Randy Savage would love to see the community support the girls if that were to happen.
"It would be nice to pack that gym one last time," Savage said. "And hopefully we could do our part by winning."
The girls nearly did their part Friday against perennial power Collegiate, losing just 63-57.
MHS actually led 30-27 at the half, but were outscored 27-12 in the third quarter.
Zeiner was once again high-scorer with 21 points and eight rebounds.
Hett was in double-figures with 15 points and four rebounds, as every Warrior on the court scored at least one point.
Hardey and Heerey each had five points, Bridget Lundy four, Anna Laurin, Lauren Helmer, and Amanda Richmond two, and Kristen Steinborn added a free throw.
Savage said despite Collegiate's gaudy record and recent reputation for defeating Marion soundly, his team wasn't happy with a close loss.
"I don't think they're buying into moral victories," he said. "They're planning on winning when they go somewhere."
And it has been that attitude that has garnered eight more victories this season from a year ago.
The Haven game, which ended up 56-43, was the worst Warrior loss numbers-wise since a Jan. 17 60-44 defeat at the hand of Wamego.
But Haven is ranked in the top-10 at the 4A level, and as Savage noted, the Wildcats didn't empty their bench until the final minute, something they are used to doing earlier.
"I'm not sure the game was ever in doubt in the second half," Savage said of his Warriors who got to as close at 10 points," but I never saw any point during the game where the girls looked like they didn't have a chance."
In other words the girls know they can compete with top-level teams.
"It's good that we are playing hard teams," Hett said.
Savage said he too would rather be playing better teams like Haven with just one week to go before sub-state.
"[They] might be the best team we've seen all year," he said. "We played a pretty darn good game, but there are a lot of things we can do better."
He could tell the two losses hit the girls hard, which he knew meant they wanted badly to win.
"It's good that they care, but we have to move," Savage said.
The first-year coach knows they can, because their desire to win was evident after the Haven loss.
"You could just tell they weren't here to play close, they were here to beat them," he said.
