Patriots split in 5A East play last week

Marion boys lose to Blazers, top Eagles in conference action

By CHUCK LIVINGSTON

Marion School District

The Marion boys basketball team went 1-1 last week in conference play as they jockey for a spot atop the 5A East leaderboard.

Valley View 52, Marion 47

JONESBORO — On an otherwise quiet Tuesday evening, Marion and Valley View got together for yet another installment of one of the hottest, fastest-growing basketball rivalries in the state.

In a contest that went down to the wire, and perhaps even further, Valley View outscored Marion by five points in the fourth quarter to break a 31-all tie after three frames to score a dramatic 52-47 victory inside Blazer Arena.

Valley View senior Gavin Ellis canned a three-pointer with 55.3 seconds left to give the hosts a 46-43 lead and the Blazers made six of eight free throws down the stretch to ice the contest.

Valley View (18-2 overall, 6-0 5A East) got a gamehigh 20 points from guard Josh Burnett, including 7 of 8 free throws in the fourth quarter. Oliver Barr added 14 points, while Max Manchester pumped in 10 of his own.

Marion (15-6, 4-2) got 13 points from Chandler Randle, 12 from Mikell Lewis and 9 from Jalen Neal.

Valley View scored the final four points of the first quarter when Barr made a couple of free throws and Manchester hit a layup and the Blazers led 12-8 after eight minutes.

A Burnett triple gave Valley View a 17-10 lead early in the second period, but Marion turned the tables from there, outscoring the Blazers by 12 over the remainder of the first half for a 22-19 lead at the break.

The Patriot run started with five straight points from Neal, followed by a Dexter Higgins three-pointer, a Neal layup, and a Jackson Black runner that beat the second-quarter buzzer to account for the Marion offense in the back half of the second.

Marion pushed ahead 2821 on a Lewis layup with 4:38 left in the third period, but Burnett got hot from there, scoring seven straight points before a Laird Cullen three-pointer gave the hosts a 31-29 lead late in the third, but a Black layup sent the game to the fourth quarter knotted at 31.

The fourth quarter featured eight lead changes, with the largest lead being two points until Ellis’s triple with less than a minute left on the clock.

It was Ellis’s only basket of the night.

A Higgins layup got Marion within 47-45 with 19.6 seconds left, and the Patriots had a chance to tie the game when Barr split a pair of free throws, but Marion missed a pair of three-pointers before Lewis scored on a stickback to get Marion within 48-47 with 1.2 seconds left, but the Blazers made four free throws from there to set the final score.

Marion 66, Greene Co. 39

Marion head coach Sammie Lewis has held his team to high expectations during his first season with the Patriots, but even he was pleasantly surprised by his group’s effort here on Friday night.

Lewis’s Patriots defended and harassed visiting Greene County Tech into a 10-of-42 shooting night from the floor as Marion rolled to a 66-39 victory inside Fidelity Bank Arena.

“Wow, that’s pretty good,” said Lewis. “I thought we had a good plan coming into the game here tonight. We knew they could shoot it and make even tough shots, so our effort had to be really good. But we pulled it off and I’m proud of the guys for that.”

Marion moved its record to 17-6 overall and 5-2 in the 5A East so far this winter behind junior Chandler Randle’s game-high 20 points with six rebounds, while Mikell Lewis struck for 14 points and five boards, and Dexter Higgins scored eight points and dished out four assists.

Noah Oswalt led Greene County Tech with 13 points, while Carson McDaniel scored eight, and Parker Harris scored six.

The Marion defensive effort won the day for the Patriots, but the hosts also outrebounded the Eagles 34-22, including eight offensive caroms.

“That’s vitally important for us because we need those extra possessions at times if the offense lulls,” explained Lewis. “I thought tonight, they’d get back into it, and we’d miss a shot but we’d get the rebound and score and that gave us a lift.”

In fact, Mykal Knighten gave Marion its first double- digit lead in the first period (17-6) when he pulled down a Randle miss and scored a layup, and the Pats enjoyed a 20-10 lead entering the second stanza.

Lewis slashed to the rim for a layup to give Marion its first 20-point lead of the night (3414) with 2:13 left in the first half, and the Pats’ lead was 38-16 at the break.

Marion pulled away preventing Tech from making any of its 11 field goals in the second.

“Just a really good showing by us in the second,” said Lewis. “They missed a few that I’d say were open, but we didn’t let them get too many open looks, and that’s about effort.”

The Eagles got three-pointers from McDaniel, Luke Cancilla, Kason Scott, and Harris in the third, but Marion countered that by forcing 5 turnover in that frame to lead 50-31 after three quarters.

Marion took two 27-point leads in the fourth, including the final tally.

What’s next?

Marion returns to action on Friday night when the Patriots host West Memphis in a key 5A East matchup. Tipoff of the girls contest is scheduled for 6 p.m, while the boys game gets underway around 7:30 p.m. You can watch the varsity girls and boys contests for free on the MPAN You-Tube channel, on MarionPatriots. com, or on the MPAN mobile app.

Rankings rundown

Marion is No. 17 in this week’s ScoreBookLive.com Overall Top 25 ranking.

Marion junior Jalen Neal (3) drives the lane during action last week.

Photo by Eryn Edwards