Warriors take second at Inman
By ERIC CLARK
Sports editor
With a chance for his first championship at the Inman Pre-Season Tournament, Marion head coach Rex Ostmeyer was very optimistic. His team was riding a four-game winning streak and showed signs of adding to that number.
But late momentum in Saturday's rescheduled game against St. John in the pre-season tourney, spelled doom for the Marion boys' basketball team.
"After (Tyler) Burgan hit that three, their momentum seemed to carry them the rest of the way," head coach Rex Ostmeyer said.
A dismal offensive output in the fourth quarter didn't help Marion's cause. The Warriors were outscored in the final quarter 22-6, but Marion's troubles occurred early in the game.
In the first quarter, the Tigers jumped out to an early 9-2 advantage over the Warriors. After a time-out midway through the opening quarter, Ostmeyer's Warriors battled back, and eventually closed the gap to six points after the first quarter. Marion trailed 19-13.
In the second quarter, Marion continued to rally back into the game, outscoring the Tigers 12-7 to go into the locker room at half time trailing by just one.
After intermission, the Warriors came out blazing, outscoring St. John 12-8 to command a 37-34 lead heading into the final quarter. Momentum, for the time being, appeared to be in Marion's court.
In the early minutes of the fourth quarter, St. John slinger Burgan connected on back-to-back three pointers on the offensive end for the Tigers and Nathan Spare nailed an additional three-pointer before Marion called time-out to try and weather the storm. The game's momentum had swung completely into the Tigers' favor, and St. John took the win and remained perfect on the season.
Burgan finished with a game-high 19 points, while his cohort Jerrod Stanford finished with 16.
Nickolas Hett and Joe Svitak led the Marion attack with nine points each, while junior post player Dale Vogel added eight.
With the loss, Marion is 4-2 overall and 2-0 in the Cottonwood Valley League. The Warriors will host Herington Friday night.
