By John Raffel
Correspondent
MARION – Marion’s girls basketball team lost the district opener on Monday to host McBain Northern Michigan Christian 59-38.
Marion’s season ended with an 11-10 record.
“We picked a bad time to have our worst defensive half of the season,.” Marion coach Brian Miller said. “In order to have success, we knew we would have to break their press, rebound and attack the basket We did none of those things in the first half and our defense lacked intensity. The first half score reflected that as we trailed 17-8 after the first quarter and 40-21 at the half. NMC continued to press for the duration of the game but we executed our press break much more effectively in the second half.
“We continued struggling with our rebounding but attacked the basket much more aggressively in the second half. As a result we were able to get to the free-throw line for 13 attempts compared to two for the Comets in the second half. We trailed 50-30 after three periods and 59-38 at the end. We were only outscored by two in the half. Though we didn’t execute things at the level we’re capable of the girls played hard until the end as they have all season.”
On Jacelyn Moggo, “her last career high school game may have been her best,” Miller said. “She had a career high 22 points to lead us while handling the ball all night against an aggressive trapping defense.”
Maddy Bell added eight points while Mara Jolly and Maddy Sutten had three each and Mia Kruse added two.
“It was a pleasure to be able to coach this group of girls especially the seniors who I feel I have a special bond with,” Miller said. “They will be greatly missed.”
Marion beat Bear Lake in the last regular-season game 52-33 on Thursday.