Flyers earn Sunday night win over NB
MARIA STEIN — For high school athletes, Sundays are usually reserved for rest, but this wasn’t an ordinary Sunday.
Following the cancellation Friday, New Bremen and Marion Local met for a conference matchup at The Hangar in Maria Stein Sunday night and the Flyers pulled off a thrilling 64-59 overtime victory.
Picking up things late in the third quarter, New Bremen trailed 33-22 following a baseline jumper by Marion Local’s Tate Hess with under two minutes left and it looked like the Flyers might pull away.
But Trevor Bergman hit a three from the top of the key, Nick Alig hit a three from the left corner and Bergman hit a three to begin the fourth quarter which capped off a 9-0 run for the Cardinals and New Bremen was just down 33-31.
With 5:06 left in the fourth, following a tie-up, a double technical was called on Aaron Thieman and Brady Ronnebaum, which meant that Ronnebaum picked up his fifth personal foul and was out of the game.
With 4:14 left, Thieman drove the middle of the lane and finished on the right side, tying the game up at 38, the game’s first tie since 14-14 early in the second quarter.
Peyton Otte scored for the Flyers to put them back in front and late Dave Homan would make a pair of free throws to cut the lead to 42-41.
Following a timeout with 1:33 left, Alig stole Marion Local’s inbounds near half-court, went behind his back with the ball and laid it in to give the Cardinals its first lead since the second quarter at 48-47.
Otte tied the game at 48 with a made free throw.
With seven seconds left and a tie game, New Bremen in-bounded the ball to Bergman who missed a three from the right side at the buzzer and we headed to overtime.
The Flyers quickly scored four points to begin the overtime period.
On New Bremen’s next possession, Bergman passed to a wide-open Alig underneath the basket, but he passed on the shot, finding Thieman
in the right corner for a three to cut the lead to 52-51.
Marion Local’s Luke Pohlman entered the game for the first time all Sunday and made a three near the left wing to put the Flyers back up 55-51.
Homan made a single free throw from the line with 1:50 to play in overtime.
Bergman went to the line next and made both free throws to make it 55-54.
Jack Knapke scored down low for Marion Local to extend its lead to three.
Homan again made a lone free throw and on the other end, Otte scored for the Flyers after he and Knapke each attempted a couple down low.
Trailing 61-57, Busse found Thieman for an open three but he couldn’t connect and Otte went to the line with 12.7 seconds left for the Flyers. He made his second one and teammate Tate Hess stole the ball on New Bremen’s inbounds play.
However, the Flyers turned the ball over on their attempt to put the ball in play and New Bremen took over with 8.2 seconds left.
Bergman was fouled by Hess, his fifth of the game, and he made a pair of free throws to cut the lead to three at 6259.
Jadyn Mescher was fouled with 4.2 seconds left, only needing to make one free throw to clinch the win for the Flyers. He connected on both and gave Marion Local the 6459 overtime win.
The win puts Marion Local in a tie for first play in the Midwest Athletic Conference with New Bremen.
“What a tremendous atmosphere,” said Flyers coach Kurt Goettemoeller following the win. “We said after last week when New Bremen knocked off Versailles that and how we’ve played thus far this year, we’ve earned an opportunity to play in a huge game like this. Then it didn’t happen on Friday [due to weather]. Credit our fans and New Bremen’s fans for showing up on a Sunday night. It was like a tournament game.”
Goettemoeller admitted that he felt like his team was in trouble entering the overtime period, but they managed to pull of the home win.
“But the one thing this team has done all year — we’ve come back after a loss and had to play a really tough opponent the next night. We did it against Botkins, we lost to Versailles and had to play Van Wert the next night. [It was a] similar scenario tonight. [New Bremen] didn’t play last night. Our team has responded three of four times in that situation and just showed a lot of resilience.”
Hess led all scorers with 19 points on Sunday.
“Give New Bremen a lot of credit. Gosh, they are so hard to play against because they just never quit,” said Goettemoeller.
“I just think it was a fun, competitive game between two really good teams.”