Patriots remain undefeated in 5A East

Patriots remain undefeated in 5A East

Marion downs Nettleton, eyes match-up with Searcy

Marion School District The Marion Patriots (163 overall, 9-0 5A East) marched another step closer to a conference title with Tuesday’s win over the Nettleton Raiders. The Patriots’ 66-52 win over the Raiders kept them undefeated in conference play and moved the magic number to secure a conference championship to four. The Marion coaching staff decided to change the game plan for the second meeting between the teams, despite defeating the Raiders 66-46 in the previous game. Head Coach David Clark was not pleased by his team’s rebounding stats in the first game, so he challenged his team to play more aggressive in the paint.

“We got beat on the boards last time,” Clark said after the game. “I liked how we played tonight. We also played great defense tonight, holding them to the low 30s heading into the fourth quarter.” The Patriots also helped their cause by forcing the Raiders to shoot a lot of long range jump shots.

Timothy Cesear had two blocks in the game and was joined by Decoreio Smith and Detrick Reeves with one block each.

Marion guards Detrick Reeves and Keyshawn Woods led the Patriot offense with 19 and 18 points respectively. The games leading scorer was Nettleton’s Kevin Fulton with 29 points.

Nettleton used a three-point play and a three-pointer to take the lead early in the game, but the Patriots answered back with a pair of three-pointers from Reeves. Marion would take a 16-12 lead into the second quarter.

The Patriot defense seemed to settle down in the second, holding the Raiders to just seven points in the quarter. Marion also made all four of its free throw attempts in the quarter and a pair of three-pointers from Woods and Smith helped extend the Patriot lead to 32-19 after two quarters of play.

Nettleton began to rally back in the second half after they committed eight fouls in the third quarter, including a pair of technical fouls.

Marion made nine of the 12 free throw attempts from the fouls and outscored the Raiders 21-14 in the quarter to extend the lead to 53-33 heading into the final quarter.

The Raiders outscored the Pats 19-13 in the fourth quarter, led by Fulton with 13 points in the quarter.

Marion made seven of their eight free throw attempts in the fourth to keep the lead and remain undefeated in conference play with a 6652 victory.

Up next for the Patriots is a road trip on Friday to take on the Searcy Lions (9-13, 2-7). Searcy, led by junior forward Freddy Hicks, forced Marion to overtime in the first meeting, but fell 81-77. Tip off from Searcy on tonight is scheduled for 7:30 pm. A livestream will be available for free at marionpatriots.

com.

By Tyler Bennett