By By DON EDEN / Vigilant/Argus
WHITE PIGEON – March Madness is marching Marcellus' momentum moving them to the regional after beating Cassopolis 67-58 Friday evening. The Class C District championship game was played in White Pigeon.
"Marcellus played a wonderful game and all the credit goes to coach (Troy) Kahler – we got outplayed in every facet – they shot the ball, rebounded and took care of the ball better than we did," noted Cassopolis coach Josh Hood. "March Madness is special since you need to approach every game that the other team is very, very good."
"I am not sure how many games we could beat Cassopolis in ten tries, but we prepared hard for this and won tonight by staying focused," stated an elated emotional Kahler. "We played really good basketball in our last eight games and told the kids don't care whatever everybody thinks about us as long as we believe we can win."
The biggest lead in the first half came in the first quarter after two minutes when non-starter junior Jacob Mencl converted a hook shot for an 8-3 advantage for Marcellus. Each team had trouble finding the bottom of the net after 25 shots apiece as Cassopolis made eight which was one more than the Wildcats.
Marcellus (11-12) did make a dozen of 17 charity tosses compared to 8-12 for the Rangers to take a 29-26 lead into the locker room at halftime. Senior Nic Davis nearly had a perfect second stanza to lead Cassopolis with 16 points with his center counterpart (senior Jacob Rowe) reaching double figures having 10 points. Mencl and senior cousin Kyle Kahler (coach's son) had eight and seven points respectively for the Wildcats.
The third quarter was the difference in the game as Cassopolis (17-6) made only three of a dozen shots with the Wildcats going wild on connecting on half of their 14 attempts. Senior guards Chris Reed and Cameron Booth each hit treys to give Marcellus a dozen point lead with classmates Leo Lewis and Rowe getting most rebounds that Davis couldn't grab. Booth's missile with 37 seconds left was the final score of the stanza with the Wildcats holding a 46-34 advantage.
"They did a really good job of shooting the 3s and getting the backside rebounds," said Hood. "One bad shooting night knocks you out of the tournament."
Booth hit another torpedo and Mencl rebounded a missed Marcellus free throw for a layup as the lead grew to 15 points twice in the fourth quarter with the latter coming with 4:26 remaining and things looked bleak when a minute later Davis fouled out for the Rangers behind 54-39.
Cassopolis juniors DaShaun Curtis and Stefon Luckey started hitting shots beyond the arc and senior Raymond Nelson was fouled making a trey with 1:45 remaining and the subsequent free throw narrowed the deficit to 58-53. Another bomb by Curtis and a rebound basket by senior Stefone Conner had the Ranger fans standing with 51 seconds left behind only 60-58, but a couple shots went awry to take the lead or tie the contest.
The Rangers had to commit 17 fouls in the fourth quarter alone as a quartet of hoopsters fouled out in the valiant comeback with Lewis and Booth hitting a pair of free throws each within five seconds for a 64-58 lead with 33 seconds to preserve the victory over the worn out Rangers.
"The score doesn't indicate how the game went because we spent a lot of energy to get back into the game and were tired on our last shots which were short," mentioned Hood. "The last three minutes is what we wanted to do the entire game which was very, very disappointing, because the sense of urgency came that we would be done."
Davis finished his high school career with another double-double with 21 points and 13 rebounds with Curtis scoring 10 tallies for the Rangers, while Rowe, Mencl and Booth scored 17, 15 and 13 points respectively for the victors.
"Both Jacobs (Rowe and Mencl) did a good job and our plan was to post them inside," proudly pointed out Kahler. "Mencl had some eligibility problems and got his stuff together because we don't win this game without him."
"I am proud of the guys how they battled to get back into a one possession game, but the legs seemed real tired tonight," concluded Hood. "Nic (Davis) and Raymond (Nelson) each had great 3-year careers and the other seniors (Marcus File, Brandon Fitzsimmons, Rob McCoy and Nic McKnight) each had a big part of our success and upset to see them go because they all were at practice every day helping this team."
MARCELLUS 67
Jacob Rowe 5 7-9 17, Jacob Mencl 4 7-11 15; Cameron Booth 3 4-6 13; Chris Reed 2 3-6 8; Kyle Kahler 2 2-5 8; Leo Lewis 0 3-4 3; Blake Terrill 0 2-2 2; Bryan Shelly 0 1-2 1. Totals: 16 29-45 67
CASSOPOLIS 58
Nic Davis 7 7-8 21; DaShaun Curtis 3 1-2 10; Raymond Nelson 3 1-3 9; Stefon Luckey 3 0-1 8; Stefone Conner 2 0-0 5; Steven Eleazer 1 1-2 3; Thomas First 1 0-0 2; Marcus File 0 0-0 0; Brandon Fitzsimmons 0 0-0 0; Rob McCoy 0 0-0 0; Nic McKnight 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 10-16 58
Marcellus 15 29 46 67
Cassopolis 13 26 34 58
3-pt goals: Cassopolis 8 (Curtis 3, Nelson 2, Luckey 2, Conner), Marcellus 6 (Booth 3, Kahler 2, Reed). Total fouls (fouled out): Cassopolis 30 (Davis, First, Nelson, Eleazer), Marcellus 13. Rebounds: Cassopolis 32 (Davis 13), Marcellus 35 (Lewis 8). Turnovers: Cassopolis 18 (Luckey 4), Marcellus (Kahler 6). Shooting: Cassopolis 20-64, 8-27 3-pt., Marcellus 16-45, 6-13 3pt. Records: Cassopolis 17-6, Marcellus 11-12