Marion Girls Basketball

O'Donnell looks forward to 2nd year at Marion

Brian O'Donnell knows everyone's name now. And the girls know their coach, who teaches at a different school.

Yes, O'Donnell's second year as the girls basketball coach at Marion High School should be smoother than the first.

"Absolutely," he said. "Just knowing the kids and them knowing me, I think that establishes familiarity. It's nice on both ends."

O'Donnell teaches at Springville High School and commutes to Marion for basketball practice, so he doesn't see his players during the day or have a chance to answer their questions until he sees them in the gym after school.

Perhaps predictably, the Indians started with a 1-and-9 record last year and lost a series of close games by 6, 2, 2, 4, 6 and 5 points before turning the corner. They won 5 of their next 7 games and finished with a 6-16 record.

"I was really pleased with the improvements that the girls made throughout the year," he said. "I thought they really came a long way.

"I thought last year the kids did a fantastic job of working with me as a new coach and being someone who's outside the building. They were great about it.

"From my end, I'm a lot more comfortable this year just knowing the school system, knowing the kids, knowing everyone a whole lot better."

The Indians didn't have much experience when O'Donnell took over last year, but they do now. He used a nine-girl rotation last season on a young club, and now seven of those players are back with experience and knowledge.

Kristin Kramer and Leah Smith graduated, but Dani Peyton, Jessie Kramer, Alyssa Jones, Beth Knapp, Micaela Combs, Paige Perkins and Allison Scott all know the drill.

Peyton averaged 10.4 points last season, just a shade behind Kristin Kramer's team-best mark of 10.5.

Marion has a stiff non-conference schedule that includes Dubuque Wahlert, Kennedy and Prairie from the Mississippi Valley Conference. He tabbed Williamsburg and Benton Community as potentially the teams to beat in the Wamac Conference.

O'Donnell declined to publicly state any team goals, other than to be competitive and win as many games as possible. "I never like to talk about the specific number of wins," he said.

Nonetheless, he's optimistic about the new campaign. "Absolutely," he remarked. "They're the type of kids you like to coach."

One final heartbreak for Marion girls

It happened again to the Heartbreak Kids.

For the eighth time this year, and the second in the last four days, the Marion girls lost by six points or less.

On Wednesday night,  in their home gym, the Indians fell to arch-rival Anamosa 35-31 in overtime .

The loss in the first round of a Class 3A regional ends Marion’s season with a deceiving 6-16 record.

The 12-10 Raiders, meanwhile, move on to play at second-ranked Mount Vernon (20-2) Saturday night in a regional semifinal. The Mustangs crushed Center Point-Urbana 64-32 last night.

Mount Vernon has beaten Anamosa twice already in the regular Wamac conference season, 68-26 in January and 59-34 10 days ago.

As he’s pointed out before, most recently last Saturday after a last-minute 50-49 defeat at Kennedy, Marion Coach Brian O’Donnell said Wednesday’s disappointing result could not be blamed on a lack of effort or desire.

“It’s been the story of our season that we work hard and with tremendous heart but come up a little short. Losing so many close ones has been tough. But the girls gave it everything they had every game.”

In their previous meeting in early December, Anamosa barely prevailed 27-25.

Raiders Coach Jack Leighty employed the same winning strategy in the rematch.

“With our size advantage upfront, we used a 2-3 zone to try to keep the ball out of the paint. We knew we'd give them some good looks outside. Lucky for us, they didn’t fall.”

Usually sharp from behind the arc, the Indians made only two 3-pointers.

O’Donnell said his team should have driven more into the lane.

“I didn’t think we were aggressive enough. We did too much dribbling around outside instead of attacking inside.”

On offense, the Raiders held the ball for as long as possible before getting it into one of their big girls in the middle.

“Really, we’d like to score more points than we do.” Leighty. said.. “But we’ve struggled to score all year.

“We’ve relied on tough defense. I’ll admit our game sometimes looks ugly.”

Marion’s young first-year coach gave the opponent credit for slowing down the pace of the game.

“We let them control the tempo and played right into their hands,” O’Donnell said. “I was happy with how we defended them and with our rebounding. But we missed a lot of opportunities on offense.”

Leighty said his team was prepared for what he called a “dogfight” with their Wamac conference next-door neighbor.

Winning in overtime against Maquoketa last week helped toughen his girls for another game.

Indeed, it was a nip-and-tuck affair all last night.

Tied at 5-5 after the first quarter, Anamosa squeezed ahead at half 12-10.

It was knotted again at 20-20 after three quarters and at 27-27 at the end of regulation.

In overtime, Anamosa came out with six quick points.

The Indians got is as close as 33-30 on a steal and a lay-up by quicksilver junior guard Dani Peyton with 43 seconds left, but Anamosa closed the game out from the free throw line.

As frustrating as the season was for Marion in many respects, the players seemed upbeat afterward.

“We came out strong tonight and made them earn the win,” said sophomore sparkplug Micaela Combs. “Coach says defense wins ball games, and our defense kept us in the game.”

Peyton acknowledged the team needs work on offense.

“We’ll be in the gym tomorrow morning, working on our shots, getting ready for next season.”

ANAMOSA (35): Kellie Vaughn 0 7-12 7, Abi Tuetken 1 0-0 2, Tristan Camp 5 2-5 12, Lauren Buck 2 2-6 7, Kayla Zumbach 1 2-3 4, Lindsey Bildstein 1 0-0 3, Mallory Wagner 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 13-26 35.

MARION (31): Leah Smith 2 0-0 4, Jessie Kramer 2 1-2 5, Krisin Kramer 3 1-2 8, Dani Peyton 3 3-6 9, Alyssa Jones 1 0-0 2, Beth Knapp 1 0-0 3, Micaela Combs 0 0-0 0, Allison Scott 0 0-0 0, Paige Perkins 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 5-10 31.
 
Halftime – Anamosa 12, Marion 10. End of regulation – Anamosa 27, Marion 27. 3-point goals –  Anamosa 2 (Bildstein, Buck), Marion 2 (Knapp, K. Kramer). Total fouls – Anamosa 13, Marion 22. Fouled out – Zumbach.

Indians take Cougars to the wire

Somebody forgot to tell the spunky Marion girls it was supposed to be rollover for Roloff Saturday night at the Kennedy gym.

Veteran Cougar Coach Dennis Roloff was going for his 300th win in a 20-year career at the school. Not many figured the party would be spoiled by a middle-of-the-pack 6-14 team from the Class 3A Wamac conference.

But it took a couple of improbable turn of events in the last 37.5 seconds of a roller coaster game for Kennedy (8-13)  to escape with a 50-49 near-miracle victory.

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3-point barrage not enough for Marion girls

 VAN HORNE -- Kristin Kramer scored 16 points Tuesday night as the Marion Indians lost to Benton, 64-49, in a Wamac Conference game.

Marion (6-14, 5-13) made ten 3-pointers, with Kramer and Dani Peyton hitting three apiece. Beth Knapp and Micaela Combs made two 3-pointers apiece.

Madison Weekly popped in four 3-pointers and scored 18 points for Benton (17-4, 15-3). Katie Kullmer scored 14 points for the Bobcats and Sara Petrzelka had 11.

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