(3-17-18) Two teams not ranked in the Top 10 of the Final AP D IV State Rankings will match-up Thursday at the Schottenstein Center for a chance to play in the OHSAA State Boys Basketball Final.
Marion Local is making a trip to Columbus next weekend to play in the Final Four after getting a little revenge for a regular season loss in a 62-47 Regional final win over Ft. Loramie. Pandora-Gilboa made history Friday night beating Crestview to win their first-ever Regional title and will make their first trip in school history to Columbus to play for a State title.
For the Rockets it has been an impressive season, besides winning a sectional, district and a regional championship they also won two conference titles, the Blanchard Valley Conference and the Putnam County League.
The Rockets are led by 6’6 Senior Shooting Guard Drew Johnson ( 17 ppg and 8 rpg) who won Player of the Year honors in both the BVC and PCL. He was also named 1st team All-Northwest District. Johnson will play basketball at the next level as he signed this year with NAIA Huntington University.
In the Regional final win over Crestview Friday night Johnson had 28 points and 5 rebounds, but he had plenty of help from his teammates. Riley Larcom 14 pts, 5 reb, 3 assist, Jared Breece (Jr) 10 pts, 4 reb, 8 assist Eli Phillips 9 pts, 10 reb, 8 steals and Cooper McCullough with 9 pts and 5 assist.
Breece was a 2nd team All BVC selection, McCullough (Sr) and Phillips (Sr) were named to the 3rd team.
The Rockets only loss of the season came on December 23rd when they lost to Upper Scioto Valley 55-52.
The Flyers picked up some satisfaction after a regular season loss to beat Ft. Loramie 62-47 to advance to the State Final Four.
Tyler Prenger, who scored just 2 points in the Regional semifinal win over Catholic Central led the Flyers with 23 points, Nathan Bruns added 17 points and Matt Rethman added 10.
Marion Local coach Kurt Goettemoeller told the Sidney Daily News after the win about the defensive play of the Flyers:
We had some guys come in and help, and we knew everything they wanted to run. We were locked into their tendencies.
We’ve got a lot of length, so when they are driving in there, we were able to roll up and make them shoot over our length. They were missing a lot of them inside early. We just didn’t want them to shoot 3s, and the big thing is we rebounded well. We didn’t give them second opportunities.
It’s Marion Local’s first regional championship in 14 years, in 2004, the Flyers finished as state runner-ups.
State Bound!!!! pic.twitter.com/4yo6F8XlcY
— Marion Local Boys BB (@MarionLocalBB) March 17, 2018
A State Championship win next weekend would give them something not many schools have done in Ohio, win a State title in both football and boys basketball.
The winner of the Flyers-Rockets game will play the winner of the Berlin Hiland-Cornerstone Christian semifinal game.
How they made it to Columbus…..
Pandora-Gilboa 26-1
12/2 @ Allen East 
68 – 31
12/8 McComb 61 – 42
12/12 Kalida 48 – 35
12/15 @ Riverdale 68 – 23
12/16 Delphos Jefferson 67 – 42
12/22 Hopewell-Loudon 60 – 38
12/23 @ Upper Scioto Valley (L) 55 – 52
12/28 Leipsic 49 – 24
1/5 Arlington 30 – 27
1/6 @ Miller City 44 – 42
1/12 @ Leipsic 62 – 30
1/13 Ottoville 59 – 51
1/19 North Baltimore 51 – 43
1/26 Arcadia 54 – 18
2/2 @ Van Buren 59 – 48
2/3 @ Bluffton 53 – 39
2/6 @ Columbus Grove 66 – 54
2/9 @ Vanlue 72 – 36
2/16 Liberty-Benton 51 – 32
2/17 @ Fort Jennings 51 – 38
2/22 Continental 54 – 32
2/23 @ Cory-Rawson 90 – 42
Tournament Trail
3/2 Holgate 61 – 30
3/6 Miller City 49 – 45
3/9 Kalida 56 – 33
3/13 Mohawk 50 – 31
3/16 Crestview 70-58
Marion Local 23-5
Tournament Trail
3/2 Temple Christian 63 – 33
3/6 New Bremen 61 – 31
3/9 St. Henry 39 – 38 (OT)
3/13 Springfield Catholic Central 55 – 33
3/16 Ft. Loramie 62 – 47
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Who is the home team during this next game?
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