01-13-2020
BY JACK BULLOCK
MARISSA - On Monday night at home, the Marissa-Coulterville Meteors did just enough to pick up a pretty good victory over another highly regarded 1A team as head coach Scott Wine's club improved to 11-5 on the season.

But the triumph was anything but easy.

Although the Meteors jumped out to a big early lead, Odin remained in the contest up until the final minutes as the Eagles fell to 10-7 with the 53-41 loss.

M-C used a good beginning and a strong finish to polish off the win in a rare Monday night clash.

Alex Jones, a 6-foot-1 senior guard, topped the Meteors with 21 points while 6-foot-3 senior guard Sebastion Ivory-Greer added 19.

For Odin and head coach Tyler Mitchell, he got another fine scoring performance from senior Lucas Shaffer, who led all point producers on the night with 23 points.

Senior guard Ethan Finckbone and junior forward Kegan Parrish chipped in 10 and eight points for the Eagles in defeat.

“That's a good win for us tonight. That team (Odin) kind of mirrors us in a way. They have two guys (Shaffer, Finckbone) that are kind of their 'go-to' guys and I think tonight maybe our third, fourth and fifth guys played maybe a little better than their guys,” said Coach Wine.

Two main statistics, and deciding factors in the matchup, were rebounding in turnovers.

The Eagles lost both categories.

M-C held a 30-22 rebounding spread with 13 of the boards coming off of the offensive glass.

“They (our team) are always interested in scoring (offensive rebounding) but on the other end (defense) we don't get so interested in,” said Coach Wine. “On the offensive board we do a pretty good job. I've had several coaches comment on that.”

The Meteors also took much better care of the ball offensively as they committed just eight turnovers compared to 19 by Odin.

That combination allowed Marissa-Coulterville to escape with a win despite not shooting the ball particularly well.

Coach Wine's club ended up just 16-of-48 overall from the floor (33.3 percent) and 0-of-6 from the 3-point circle.

Coach Mitchell's club shot the ball better than the Meteors; connecting on 16-of-38 overall (42.1 percent) but only 2-of-13 from long range.

Odin managed to hang around and even held a couple of leads in the game after Marissa-Coulterville led the Eagles after jumping out to a large first quarter lead.

Ivory-Greer and Jones motored out of the gate for the hosts, scoring all of the points for M-C in the opening quarter.

Forcing seven turnovers in the early going, M-C scored a pair of transition baskets by Ivory-Greer, including a slam dunk on a fast break, for an early 6-0 lead.

Jones also added points in the scoring run that produced a 13-2 lead.

Odin finally got things going in the right direction as they didn't allow M-C to get any further ahead.

Shaffer (thrice) and Parrish scored on an 8-0 run to close out the first quarter (13-8) to trail just 13-10 in the early part of the second quarter.

Despite 4-of-11 shooting and seven early miscues, Odin weathered the storm and were back in the game.

Marissa-Coulterville senior forward Blake Steinwagner scored nine points for the Meteors with one of his baskets coming in the second quarter on a steal and lay in off of a bad Odin inbound pass.

Despite all their woes, the Eagles managed to tie the game at 16-16 with Finckbone scoring on a pair of drives to the basket and Shaffer adding a couple of foul shots.

Late in the half, two rebound buckets by M-C seniors Austin Gilley and Kyle Rahlfs gave the club a 23-18 lead.

“We tell the kids 'clean up the possessions' you have to rebound defensively. We have to do a better job of that,” said Coach Mitchell. “That is something that we have to get better at.”

Odin would even the score at 23-23 halftime with Shaffer hitting a 3-point bomb from the top of the arc coming off of a set screen and then Finckbone finishing a drive with a basket with :03 left.

The Eagles made their best run of the night with an 8-2 run to begin the third quarter.

Parrish (twice), Shaffer and Finckbone all scored in the run, which produce the Eagles' biggest lead at 31-25 with 4:06 left in the third.

Marissa-Coulterville rallied behind Jones and Ivory-Greer.

Jones scored twice before the end of the quarter and Ivory-Greer added another drive in the lane.

In between the buckets, Shaffer added his second 3-pointer of the night as Odin led 34-33 heading to the fourth quarter.

After Jones and Shaffer traded baskets, the Meteors took back control, and the lead for good, in the early going of the final period.

Steinwagner grabbed a rebound of his own missed shot in the paint and his stick back while being fouled turned into a three-point play and a 38-36 M-C lead.

Another Steinwagner trip to the foul line (1-of-2) and two more baskets by Jones were unanswered by Odin.

Ivory-Greer closed out the 12-2 run as Marissa-Coulterville led 45-36 with 4:59 remaining.

Shaffer added another 3-pointer from the right wing and he hit 2-of-3 free throws with :40.0 left.

However by this point, the Meteors found themselves going to the foul line.

In the final quarter, Coach Wine saw his club nail down 6-of-8 from the stripe to close out the win.

The Meteors committed just two turnovers in the second half while Odin, when they needed points late, missed their final four shots from the floor and ended up the 2-of-12 from the field in the final stanza.

Odin has an important game on Tuesday night at home as they host Dieterich before hosting Christ Our Rock Lutheran in a Midland Trail Conference game on Friday night.

M-C will head to Waltonville on Friday night for another non-conference matchup.

“We didn't have a very good start. We knew there would be a storm but we didn't know it would be at the start right out of the gate,” said Coach Mitchell. “But we weathered it. We got to 23-23 at half and we were plus one in the third. They (M-C) get up and guard hard and we gave up transition points off of turnovers because we didn't handle the basketball.”