Marion beats Clear Creek-Amana in an intense boys’ basketball game

MARION — You needed a few minutes after this one Tuesday night to kind of decompress, exhale and try to figure out exactly what you’d just seen ... and heard.

From a purely bottom-line standpoint, you saw Marion’s boys’ basketball team beat Clear Creek-Amana, 77-61. The Class 3A No 7 Wolves pulled away in the fourth quarter to move their overall record to 15-3.

CCA dropped to 11-5 and quite likely below Marion when it comes to seeding in Substate 5. At least right now, top-ranked Fort Madison would seem to be your top seed in the substate, with Marion the 2 and Clear Creek-Amana the 3.

That could mean an extra home game in the upcoming postseason for Marion, which is never a bad thing. Coaches in the substate, by the way, will Zoom probably sometime this weekend to hammer out the seed of each of the eight teams, which determines pairings, of course.

“It’s extremely important from the aspect of just confidence and knowing we can beat anybody if we play how we’re supposed to,” said Marion guard Brayson Laube. “Defensively at the start, we weren’t ready, we weren’t sharp, but we figured it out as the game went on.”

“This was a game we were looking forward to playing,” said Marion Coach Pete Messerli. “And I think it was probably the same with them.”

Which is why you had coaches and players from both teams doing some barking at each other during the game. And after the game, as Clear Creek-Amana Coach Brandon Clubb appeared to express his dismay with Laube, Marion’s leading scorer with 24 points here, for him going downcourt and dunking with about 35 seconds left in this game.

Laube wouldn’t bite when asked about the incident.

“You know it’s a high school basketball competition, there are a lot of competitors out here, a lot of good basketball players, and we’re just out there competing,” he said. “It’s nothing personal.”

Clear Creek-Amana built a nine-point lead in the second quarter, mostly behind the shooting of guard Ben Swails. He ended up with four 3-pointers and 19 first-half points.

Marion did rally late to forge a 33-all tie at halftime, thanks to a buzzer-beating tip in by Calen Claypool.

Marion got out quick in the second half, building a seven-point third-quarter lead and a 57-52 edge after three quarters. A blend of really good defense and some transition offense allowed the Wolves to stretch their lead to double figures.

Payton Hodges had 15 points off the bench for Marion, with Boede Rahe and Myles Davis adding 10 points apiece. Messerli pointed to the contributions of Hodges and fellow bench guard Nathan Whalen for their roles in the win, especially Whalen, who helped hold Swails to one second-half point.

Guard Kyle Schrepfer led CCA with 21 points, 17 in the second half. He hit five total treys.

“It was a playoff atmosphere, and it was two solid teams,” Messerli said. “Clear Creek is a really good team, and we knew that coming in. They had two extremely dynamic scorers that shot the lights out, in my opinion. They’re great players. But we had a nice run there in the second half, which helped us withstand their run from earlier in the game.

“This was a great atmosphere for high school basketball between two competitive teams. We have very much respect for Creek Creek-Amana, the players and the coaches.”

AT MARION

CLEAR CREEK-AMANA (61): Ben Swails 6-14 4-8 20, Gage Freeman 3-9 0-1 6, Grant Kruse 3-9 1-2 7, Kyle Schrepfer 7-15 2-4 21, Brody Clubb 1-4 0-0 2, Harrison Rosenberg 1-4 3-6 5, Josh Loren 0-1 0-0 1. Totals 21-55 10-21 61.

MARION (77): Kaden Frommelt 2-8 1-2 5, Boede Rahe 4-5 2-2 10, Alex Mota 1-3 1-2 3, Myles Davis 4-10 1-1 10, Brayson Laube 8-16 4-5 24, Jordan Fischer 2-4 0-1 4, Payton Hodges 5-7 2-2 15, Calen Claypool 3-6 0-0 6, Nathan Whalen 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 29-60 11-15 77.

Halftime - Clear Creek-Amana 33, Marion 33. 3-point goals - Clear Creek-Amana 9-16 (Swails 4-6, Kruse 0-1, Schrepfer 5-9), Marion 8-23 (Frommelt 0-2, Mota 0-2, Davis 1-6, Laube 4-7, Fischer 0-1, Hodges 3-4, Whalen 0-1). Rebounds - Clear Creek-Amana 44 (Freeman 10), Marion 31 (Rahe, Laube 5). Total fouls - Clear Creek-Amana 16, Marion 17. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Clear Creek-Amana 14, Marion 3.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com