Marion boys complete sweep

Patriots top Greene County Tech to take season series

By Chuck Livingston

Marion School District

Fidelity Bank Arena, home of the Marion Patriots, has become something of a house of horrors for visiting teams over the past two years, namely league opponents.

After all, Marion’s last league loss was almost two years ago to the day, when MHS seniors were sophomores, and the Patriots that season played for a state title for just the third time in school history.

Marion’s seniors got some measure of revenge on Friday night, riding a dominant second quarter to a 67-47 victory over visiting Greene County Tech at Fidelity Bank Arena.

Tech knocked off Marion in overtime in 2022, but the Pats have since won four straight against the Eagles.

“If we knock down shots then we’ll be just fine,” said Marion coach Emmanuel Wade. “They did a good job preventing us from getting the ball inside tonight. Our bigs can be dominant inside, so they did a great job there.

We have been working on the insideoutside game the last few weeks, and it paid off tonight.”

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Marion junior guard Lyndell Buckingham scored a gamehigh 23 points for the Pats, while David Brewer hit for 11, and Jalen White finished with 10 points and eight rebounds.

Kayden King recorded 14 points for the Eagles, while Parker Harris and Noah Oswalt hit for nine points apiece. After the Eagles (12-16 overall, 2-10 5A East) hit four of their nine first-quarter threepoint attempts to take a 16-15 lead to the second stanza, Marion (16-4, 10-2) forced six Eagle turnovers and allowed the visitors to make just three field goals in the second quarter and the hosts claimed a 35-23 lead at halftime.

White scored the first four Marion points of the second stanza as the Pats surged ahead 19-18 on a short jumper with 7:18 left in the first half.

The Marion run continued when Buckingham hit a threepointer, and Ronnie Townsend scored in the paint for a 24-20 Patriot lead with 5:54 remaining in the second. Leading by one point midway through the second, Marion barred Tech from the scoreboard for the rest of the first half, and the Patriot offense heated up when Buckingham, Townsend, and Lewis hit three-pointers, with Lewis’s jumper from bonus range beating the halftime buzzer as the Pats toted a 35-23 lead to halftime.

“With jumpers like that, you make them or miss them,” said Wade. “We had guys step up tonight who made a lot of them, and that’s big for us.”

But King got Tech back in the mix in the third period, hitting three-pointers on three straight Eagle possessions to get the visitors within 37-32 with 4:17 left in the third.

With Marion clinging to a 4138 lead with 2:52 left in the third, Marion embarked on a 13-2 run that ultimately gave the Pats enough cushion for victory.

The spurt started with a Dexter Higgins triple, followed by a Buckingham layup, which led to a pair of free throws from Kayden Nesbitt that gave Marion a 48-38 lead with 1:22 left in the third.

Higgins and Buckingham came up with steals near half court and hit Nesbitt for easy layups, and Buckingham punctuated the Patriot run with a steal and dunk with 1.2 left in the third that gave the hosts a 54-40 lead to open the fourth.

A King three-pointer got Tech within nine points (54-45) with 6:46 left in the game, but the Eagles only managed five points the rest of the way.