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By MATT WENZEL
Manistee News Advocate Sports Editor
ONEKAMA
— Onekama found life outside the West Michigan D League tough. Playing
their first non-league game of the season, the Portagers had their
four-game winning streak snapped in a 61-56 loss to Marion on Monday
night.
“We didn’t play with the same
intensity that we’ve been playing with, for the whole game,” said
Onekama coach Roger Smith. “We didn’t do the things we have to do to
win.”
The Portagers (7-1, 7-2) had
trouble matching up inside with a bigger Marion (7-2) team, that
featured a balanced scoring attack, with four players in double figures.
James Holmes led Marion with 19
points, Aaron Johnson scored 12, while Shayne Brothwell and Dan Michell
had 11 apiece.“They played
very good defense and rebounded,” Smith said. “We didn’t get beat by a
weak team.”
Sophomore Skyler Kimpel led
Onekama with 13 points and five rebounds, senior Levi Capper had 12
points and a team-high eight rebounds and freshman Adrian Norman had 11
points and three assists.
Onekama, which was coming off a
win over No. 9 Baldwin on Friday, mounted a late rally and had chances
down the stretch, but couldn’t convert. Making just three of eight free
throws over the final quarter didn’t help the Portagers’ cause. “I
thought we could have won that game,” Capper said. “We didn’t play as
well as we could.”
Onekama struggled on the boards,
as well as covering outside against Marion, which moved the ball well
against the Portagers’ 2-3 zone. “We like to attack zones,” said Marion
coach Tim Michell. “We’ve got some good outside shooters.”
Marion used the ball movement to
create open shots and knocked down seven 3-pointers in the game, five in
the second half. Onekama made just one triple in the game. “The
3-pointers really hurt us tonight,” Smith said.
The game started a bit slow, with
missed shots and turnovers by both teams. Onekama senior Hunter Slade
knocked a pair of free throws to give his team an 8-4 lead with three
minutes to play. However, the Eagles closed the quarter on a 6-0 run to
take a 10-8 lead.
Both teams played better in the
second quarter, which featured three ties and nine lead changes. Marion
opened up a 25-21 lead with 1:05 to play, but Onekama senior Ryan Miller
scored the final four points to knot the score at 25 at the half. |
Miller finished the game with six
points and five rebounds, Slade had eight points and three assists, and
Joe Kosiboski had six points and five rebounds.
The Eagles were more patient on
offense in the third quarter and began working possessions longer,
waiting for the open shots. Marion went on a 7-0 run to open a 34-27
lead, before Onekama fought back to get within a point at 37-36 with
2:49 left. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Marion highlighted an 11-4 run
to close the quarter with a 48-40 lead, the biggest of the game.
“We came out and stunk it up in
the third quarter,” Smith said.
Norman scored five points in the
first 32 seconds of the fourth quarter to kick-start an 8-0 run from
Onekama that tied the game at 48 with 6:13 left.
After committing early turnovers,
the Eagles settled down on offense and began working for open shots,
which they hit. Marion pushed its lead up to seven points at 59-52 with
1:18 to play, before Onekama made a final run. Baskets by Kimpel and
Norman pulled Onekama within three points with 26 seconds left to play,
but the Portagers couldn’t manage to score down the stretch.
Marion, which finished a woeful
6-17 from the free throw line, got two when they needed them as Anderson
knocked down both attempts with 13 seconds left to close the scoring.
“I’m not ashamed of the way we
played,” Smith said. “Nobody likes to lose, but if we learn from it,
we’ll be all right.” |
