In front of a raucous, packed house, the Marionville Comets defeated the Crane Pirates to win the Class 2 District 11 Tournament, 44-40, on Friday night. Marionville jumped out to an early ten point lead and would withstand several comebacks by the Pirates to hold on for their first district title since 2010.
The Comets led in the first quarter by just one point, 11-10, but in the second quarter saw their lead stretch to 21-11. Crane did not score until almost halfway through the second quarter. When Crane switched to man-to-man defense they put a stop to the Comets’ scoring. By halftime, Crane had cut the lead to 21-18, giving them the momentum going into the locker room.
At halftime, Marionville’s coach Paden Grubbs told his players not to be frustrated and to stop fouling the shooters.
“Crane did a great job of cutting our lead down,” said Grubbs. “We were up ten on them but we got very frustrated with the way the first half ended. They didn’t score a field goal in the second quarter, it was all free throws. We talked about not fouling shooters, moving our feet, making them make the extra pass, and making them beat us from the three point line because they do like to dribble-drive.”
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In the third quarter, Crane kept fighting back but could not manage to take the lead. The Comets still led by one at the end of the third, 30-29.
In the fourth quarter, Marionville was up 35-29 with 5:17 to go in the game when Crane mounted another comeback. The next two minutes saw the Comets manage just two free throws while Crane’s senior Tanner Gold and junior Dalton Hayes drove to the bucket and tied the game at 37. With less than three minutes on the clock, Gold made a free throw to give Crane its first lead since the first quarter, 38-37.
With 2:35 on the clock, Marionville senior Jacob LaSalle was fouled and went to the line, where he knocked down both free throws, giving the lead back to the Comets. LaSalle went 3-4 from the line in the fourth quarter.
“It feels so awesome. We haven’t won it in basketball; we’ve won in baseball and football, but this feels great, especially against our rival, Crane. There’s nothing better,” LaSalle said. “We’ve got five seniors; we know what we’re doing. We’ve lost a couple close games like that and we knew we’d be alright. We’ve been practicing to deal with pressure all year. We play a tough schedule and it helped us tonight.”
Marionville senior Rane Bateman had his only bucket of the night with 1:55 left in the game, giving the Comets a 41-38 lead.
“My teammates picked me up,” said Bateman. “Lathan had been struggling with scoring lately but tonight he stepped up. It’s great, we have four or five guys that can score points for us and we’ve got pretty good defense. This feels great; we’ve waited for this for a long time but it’s finally here and we love it.”
Trailing by four, the Pirates were not finished. Gold scored with :58 to go in the game, making the score 42-40. Marionville turned the ball over, giving the Pirates a chance to tie the game but they failed to make their free throws. Marionville’s Lathan Kerans knocked his down, putting the Comets up four, 44-40.
“It feels wonderful, we’ve been working for this all year,” said Kerans. “Ever since I was a freshman I’ve wanted this but we hadn’t got it, Crane’s always had it. Tonight I wanted to win it so bad. I’ve been in a slump a lot lately. My dad and I have been talking a lot and he said it’s all in my wrist and I figured that out tonight.”
Marionville, who had not pressed much during the game, then put a full court press on the Pirates. Crane, who was in desperation mode with :12 left, attempted to beat the press. Bateman made the defensive play of the night when he picked off a Pirate pass, securing the win for Marionville.
“It was a very physical game,” said Crane coach Craig Campbell. “Marionville is a football school and they are strong. Congratulations to them, they played hard and we played hard. It was one of those games that, a couple of plays, if they’d gone our way there at the end, we’d be the ones celebrating. That’s part of basketball. We missed some free throws. After the game, I told my kids I was proud of them. They played hard all year, and a lot of people didn’t expect us to be as good as we were. I know we surprised a lot of people and to be honest, I wasn’t surprised with how well we played. Tonight was a tough one, though.”
After the game, an ecstatic Grubbs could not contain his enthusiasm for his team.
“I don’t have words to explain it,” said Grubbs. “This is so sweet. It was about experience and determination. We talked before the game about being determined for 32 minutes, to come in here feeling good about ourselves and to celebrate. We’ve been through some tough losses and that’s really what helped us. We play a tough schedule to prepare us for districts, to aim for this right here. Our kids were determined to get it done.”
Marionville stayed in their 2-3 zone all night, forcing Crane to shoot the ball from the outside.
“We were going to stay in our 2-3, we’re zone 100% of the time,” said Grubbs. “We’re going to live and die with it. We’re not going to change it up and lose while doing something that we don’t typically do. We did come out of the zone with :12 seconds and put on a zone press to try and slow them up a little bit and waste some clock. Rane read it well and got a huge steal. That’s just what we talked about, too, doing what you do well and not trying to do too much. I think Rane only had two points but he had a huge steal. He didn’t give up on the game, he kept playing and that was huge. Crane does a very good job, they are well-equipped. They do things very well with what they got. I knew it was going to be a battle. Crane and Marionville is traditionally a good rivalry and they got the better of us a few years ago. I believe it was 2010 the last time we won a district championship so we’re going to celebrate this one. We’ll take tomorrow off and start preparing Monday. Our motto is ‘live to fight another day’.”
Marionville 11 10 9 14 -44
Crane 10 8 11 11 -40
Marionville—Jacob LaSalle-12, Lathan Kerans-12, Tanner Wright-8, Cole Brown-5, Aaron Head-3, Rane Bateman-2, Brandon Horn-2
Crane—Tanner Gold-17, Dalton Hayes-14, Deven White-6, Robby Williams-3
