Marion splits with Nettleton at home
Boys win, girls lose as Patriots battle Raiders
By Tyler Bennett
Marion School District Marion’s basketball teams split their games on a competitive Tuesday night at Patriot Arena against the Nettleton Raiders. Both Patriot teams focused on playing better defense than in the conference opener.
The night started with the Lady Patriots (7-10 overall, 0-2 5A East) challenging the Lady Raiders (14-2, 2-0).
Marion had a bit of a size advantage, but was not able to make shots when they counted the most, according to Coach Shunda Johnson. “We’ve not been doing a good job of executing down the stretch,” Johnson said. “We work on that in practice all the time. We can do it, we just need to work on our chemistry, especially around the bucket.”
The Lady Pats never trailed by more than twelve, but the Lady Raiders made their shots at momentum- killing moments.
Arkansas commit Elauna Eaton scored eighteen for the Lady Raiders in their 59-49 win.
Marion junior Jala Henderson led the Lady Patriot scoring attack with fourteen points, followed by senior Keiana Delaney with twelve. Delaney made both of Marion’s threepoint baskets.
“We’re two games into a fourteen game conference schedule,” Johnson said. “We’ve got twelve more games to get some wins and earn a spot into the postseason.”
The Marion boys (5-9, 1-1) played aggressive defense in their twenty- one point win over the Raiders (3-10, 0-2).
The win was Marion’s fourth over the Raiders in their last five meetings.
The Pats held the Raiders to eight points in the first quarter, but got even stingier in the second. Marion held Nettleton to a fourpoint quarter and led 39-12 at halftime.
“We dominated the boards tonight. You’ve got to be able to do that in this conference,” Coach David Clark said. “Most of our offense tonight came from our defense.
We rebounded so well we could push the ball down court and it opened up a lot of opportunities.”
Clark said the rebounding was much improved from the previous games. He praised the team as a whole, but was especially impressed with the performances of BJ Johnson and Timothy McDonald.
“Those two were animals on the glass,” Clark said. “They’ve been doing it all year long, but we’ve been undersized. They’ve been playing like that all year, but it definitely helped us out.”
The main benefactor of the transition offense was senior Detrick Reeves Jr., who finished with a game-high twenty- five points. Reeves made two of Marion’s five three-pointers.
The other three pointers were made by Darrius Waterford (nine points), McDonald (five points) and Damien Phillips (four points).
Up next for the Pats is a Friday night road trip to Searcy. Tipoff for the girls’ game is scheduled for 6:00 pm, followed by the boys’ game at approximately 7:30 pm.
