BOWLING GREEN (Crawford County Now) — Defensive pressure and size proved the difference as Marion Local handed Colonel Crawford its first defeat in more than three months.

The Flyers jumped out to an early lead and downed the Eagles 52-38 in the Division VI state semifinal game Friday night inside the Stroh Center at Bowling Green State University.

“Hats off to Marion Local. They’re a very good basketball team. They’re winners and are very well coached and come out of a great conference in the MAC (Midwest Athletic Conference),” said Crawford head coach David Sheldon.

Colonel Crawford (25-2) fell behind 17-7 after one quarter as ML took an 8-2 lead right out of the gate.

“Two of the big keys tonight where we got off to a bad start in the first quarter and also in the beginning of the third quarter,” Sheldon said. “You can’t do that against very good teams. In the first quarter we got hurt on the O-glass. We knew they were mooses on the glass.”

Austin Niekamp had 9 points in the first half on his way to a game-high 18 points.

Marion Local (26-2) took advantage of Colonel Crawford’s cold shooting (8-of-22) in the first half and built a 25-18 halftime lead.

“They had three guys that scored, and their auxiliary pieces didn’t score, and that definitely helped,” Marion Local head coach Kurt Goettemoeller said.

Payne DeGray scored 15 points and 8 rebounds. Brayden Holt added 13 points, 4 assists and a pair of steals. John DeGray netted 10 points and 4 rebounds.

Holt’s 8-footer cut the lead to 22-18 before Niekamp, a 6-foot-8 post, scored and Kale Ahrens added a free throw before the break.

“Super thrilled to be headed back to the state championship game. They’re a fun group and they’ve taken us on a heck of a ride,” Goettemoeller said.

The Flyers are making their second appearance since 2004, having gotten there last in 2018.

“I felt like coming into this game we were a little bit of a favorite, but I felt good about the matchups. You never know how it’s going to play out. It comes down to defense and rebounding and that’s what this program hangs its hat on.”

The Flyers won the board battle 31-20 with Brayden Mescher grabbing 10 rebounds and Ryan Homan 9.

“Credit to my guys. They fought back and cut it to 5 and had a shot at 3. They left it out on the floor and made history at Colonel Crawford, and I’m proud of them,” Sheldon said.

After trailing 33-26 heading into the fourth quarter the Eagles made it 35-30 when John DeGray scored at the 6-minute mark. Three minutes later Holt hit a 3 from the top of the key to again tighten the deficit to 44-34.

Colonel Crawford would get as close as 45-38 with 1:44 remaining before ML pulled away and hit 7 foul shots down the stretch.

“We had a lot of great accomplishments. And you’re always chasing that next one and you run into a great team like Marion Local,” Sheldon said.

The Flyers advanced to the state championship game next Saturday at 2 p.m. against Woodsfield Monroe Central (23-3) inside the University of Dayton Arena. The Seminoles beat Kirtland 58-54 in the other semifinal contest.

Marion Local’s length was problematic for the Eagles.

“Brayden gets 18 shots. Payne gets 16 shots, and it was both of them. You had Ahrens (6-foot-3) guarding Brayden and Niekamp with his size. I thought their length really, really hurt us,” Sheldon said.

“All year we’ve been the most physical team, but you ran into a little more physical team tonight. But their length really altered shots all night long.”

Colonel Crawford hit 38% of its shots (17-of-45) and was just 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

“They made sure they did not leave (Logan) Goddard (who was 0-1 shooting) and we got some other good looks from 3s. They didn’t go.”

That was by design.

“We didn’t want them to shoot 3s on us, especially that kid. Kale’s really long and did a good job on him,” Goettemoeller said. “He’s a great defender and he’s just a sophomore. Some coaches dream about shooters, I dream about long wing defenders.”

Sheldon said his four seniors — Goddard, Kaden Bruner, Lucas Foy, and Brady Hill — will be missed.

“In this day and age, it’s all about me, me. They all had roles and different roles. Brady Hill comes to me at the end of the season and says, ‘Coach, I need to help on the scout team.’ How many kids do that? Lucas was a great leader, but didn’t get the minutes. He just wanted to win. Kaden brought the toughness and was the middle linebacker for us.”

Payne DeGray managed to get points in the paint despite Marion Local’s size.

“All year we’ve gone up against kids like that. Tonight, we knew we had to attack him, and I got around him and scored a couple of buckets,” DeGray said.

“Obviously he altered some of my shots, but I thought we attacked well, and we left it all out on the floor.”

For the Flyers it’s on to UD Arena to compete for a state title.

“We couldn’t quite put them away. Man, they battled. They’re a good basketball team for sure,” Goettemoeller said.

“You’ve got to make shots over our size and that’s been our mantra.”

Box score

Marion Local             17        8         8      19 — 52

Colonel Crawford       7      11         8      12 — 38

Stats

Marion Local (26-2): Shots 16-35; 3-pt. shots 4-13 (Ryan Homan 2, Austin Niekamp 2); Free throws 16-19; Rebounds 31 (Brayden Mescher 10); Turnovers 10. Scoring: Grant Kremer 1 5 7, Ryan Homan 4 1 11, Austin Niekamp 5 6 18, Kale Ahrens 2 1 5, Brayden Mescher 4 3 11.

Colonel Crawford (25-2): Shots 17-45; 3-pt. shots 1-9 (Brayden Holt); Free throws 3-6; Rebounds 20 (Payne DeGray 8); Turnovers 9. Scoring: John DeGray 5 0 10, Brayden Holt 6 0 13, Payne DeGray 6 3 15.