Marysville’s Jack Christian fires home one of his six three-pointers during Tuesday’s 64-39 victory over Franklin Heights. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
During the course of any basketball game, a coach may not have any other choice but to let his or her team know what’s going wrong and what needs to be done to correct any major malfunctions.
Marysville High School boys hoop boss Ryan Grose got his message of that nature through loud and clear to his squad during Tuesday’s halftime break.
“I told the guys this isn’t the team we’ve come to be and that we weren’t playing like the team that got us to where we are,” he said.
The reason for Grose’s concern was the fact the Monarchs (who went into the game with a 7-5 record) trailed the three-win Falcons of Franklin Heights, 22-19, at the turn.
The first quarter was particularly ugly as MHS tallied more turnovers (seven) than points (six).
Things picked up for the Monarchs during the third quarter as they eventually cruised to a 64-39 victory.
“It all started on the defensive end of the floor when we applied more pressure to Franklin Heights,” said Grose. “That enabled us to open our offense.
“We got Jack (Christian) some open looks and he knocked them down.”
There weren’t many shots that connected for MHS during the first 16 minutes of action.
The Monarchs did take an early 6-0 lead on baskets by Garrett Taylor and Christian.
After that, the offense went frosty as Franklin Heights took a 7-6 edge into the ensuing set.
Marysville stayed within striking distance of the visitors, but couldn’t get over the scoring hump during the second period.
A bucket by Taylor narrowed MHS’ gap to 15-14.
Heights, however, padded its lead at 18-14 when Mo Fofana drilled a three-pointer.
Another two of Taylor’s 21 points for the night sliced Marysville’s deficit to 18-16.
Christian later buried a three-ball that pulled MHS to within 20-19.
Fofana, however, hit a shot right before the buzzer for the Falcons’ 22-19 lead at the break.
The Monarchs’ defense forced a turnover on Franklin Heights’ first possession of the third quarter.
Evan Brown then scored to pull MHS to within 22-21.
Despite an increase in Marysville’s defensive heat, Artrill Saunders scored for a 24-21 Falcons’ advantage.
Taylor scored inside the paint to put the Monarchs only a point down at 24-23.
Christian then took matters into his own shooting hand.
He buried a pair of three-balls from the corner and added another trio of trifectas.
Taylor also scored a bucket during the offensive barrage and all of the sudden, the Monarchs found themselves up 42-26 with three minutes left in the stanza.
Gabe Schaeffer also got into the dial-up antics as he tripled in a bucket for a 45-28 MHS advantage.
The Monarchs took a 45-31 margin into the fourth quarter and never had to look over their shoulders the rest of the way.
MHS, which will travel to Central Crossing on Friday, climbed to one of its biggest margins – 60-36 – when Joey Duke assisted on another basket by Taylor.
Grose then began to clear his bench.
Nick Kessler went into the contest and scored four points.
One of his buckets came after Clark Hamilton swiped the ball and pushed it ahead to Kessler for the score.
Kessler’s final shot with 39.6 seconds to play provided for MHS’ final margin of victory.
Marysville
Christian 8-0-22, Taylor 9-3-21, Schaeffer 3-0-7, E. Brown 3-0-6, N. Brown 2-0-4, Kessler 2-0-4, Duke 0-0-0, Hamilton 0-0-0, Coil 0-0-0, Thornton 0-0-0, Johnson 0-0-0. Totals 27-3-64.
Three-point goals: Christian 6, Schaeffer 1.
Franklin Heights
Garrard 4-3-11, Fofana 3-0-7, Saunders 3-1-7, Asher 3-0-6, Fulks 1-0-3, Ibrahim 1-1-3, McDonald 1-0-2, Johnson 0-0-0, Said 0-0-0, Kerns-Hill 0-0-0, Bowers 0-0-0. Totals 16-5-39.
Three-point goals: Fofana 1, Fulks 1.
Marysville’s junior varsity and freshman squads defeated their Falcon counterparts.
The jayvees rolled to a 70-47 triumph.
Isaac Tocci led the Jr. Monarchs with 18 points and Kessler added 11.
The freshmen finished with four players in double figures during their 61-47 victory.
Connor Smith led with 14 points, while Braden Deere tallied 11.
Chase Adkins and Brayden Graves both scored 10 points.