Boys basketball: Ottawa overcomes sluggish start to top Marmion

OTTAWA – Marmion Academy that started out fast, but Ottawa was steady and strong over the final three quarters of the nonconference action Wednesday in Kingman Gym as the Pirates came away with a 47-39 victory.

Cooper Knoll gave the Pirates the first two points of the game, but then the Cadets caught fire from the field, which started with a Mathew Stewart bucket and then a 3-pointer from Caden Anderson for a 5-2 lead.

Not long after that, Braden Harms and Evan Stumm hit long-distance shots to go along with a steal and layup from Stumm for a 13-0 Marmion run and a 13-2 advantage.

The Pirates finished the quarter strong though with Knoll’s layup ending the Ottawa drought and then Keevon Peterson pumped faked the 3-pointer and drove before hitting a pull-up jumper to cut the deficit to 13-6 after eight minutes.

“We hadn’t practiced since Saturday and I thought we were sluggish to start,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “Marmion was hot early and I thought we started to get in a better rhythm after the start of the game.”

Huston Hart made a kickout to Knoll, who drained a 3-pointer for an 8-0 Pirates run that cut the Cadets lead to 13-10.

After a Marmion timeout, the Cadets got a pull-up jumper from Harms, but Ottawa responded with a 3-pointer from Owen Sanders.

While the Pirates were better defensivley after the start of the game, Marmion cooled off considerably from the field as Ottawa trimmed its lead to 20-17 when Knoll drained a pair of free throws and Hart hit another pull-up jumper as Marmion held a slim 20-19 lead at intermission.

“Give Ottawa credit,” Marmion coach Joe Piekarz said. “They played well, but we simply stopped making shots. We live and die with the 3-point shot and early we were hot, but we cooled off and never really got going after the first quarter.”

Ottawa started out the second half with a Tristan Finely 3-pointer and then took its first lead since 2-0 with a pair of free throws from Hart and never relinquished the lead from there.

Knoll had an air ball from behind the arc, but Peterson got the rebound as he was headed out of bounds then kicked it to Knoll, who got the basket and the foul before a hook shot the next time down the floor to give the Pirates a 29-23 lead.

The Cadets cut into the lead with an old-fashioned 3-point play from Christian Stewart, but Ottawa quickly responded with a 3-pointer from Drake Kaufman and then a baseline drive from Hart and pull-up jumper gave the Pirates a 34-29 edge heading into the fourth quarter.

A 3-pointer from the Cadets’ Mathew Stewart made it 34-32, but the Pirates again had an answer as Knoll got a bucket and the foul to push the Ottawa lead to 39-32.

The lead grew to nine as Peterson found Hart for a bucket, but Marmion was not about to go quietly as back-to-back steals and layups from Mathew Stewart trimmed the deficit to 43-36. Not long after, he drained a 3-pointer to make it 45-39 Ottawa.

But the Pirates hit their final two free throws to seal the game.

Ottawa was led by Knoll with 21 point to go along with 13 from Hart, while Mathew Stewart led Marmion with 16 points.

“I thought another good thing tonight for us was rebounding,” Cooper said. “We were plus 13 and that’s not something we do often, so that was a big thing for us tonight.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/illinois-valley/2024/01/25/boys-basketball-ottawa-overcomes-sluggish-start-to-top-marmion/