Gunderson, Landuyt step up as Marion wins again

MARION - Tyler Gunderson and Brenden Landuyt are anomalies in this day and age of prep basketball. All of prep sports, really.

The juniors have graduated all the levels, if you will, in the Marion boys' program. They played freshman hoops as freshmen and sophomore ball as sophomores.

Only now are they on the varsity, with the patience shown in their development obviously being rewarded.

"We played some sophomore our freshmen year, just when kids were out," Gunderson said, after his game-high 18 points helped the Indians to a 50-30 win over suspension-addled Clear Creek-Amana Tuesday night. "I feel like that's helped us a lot. Just progressing and playing on the same team. Getting used to playing with each for four years."

Someone had to step up, with the graduation of virtually every key member of Marion's Class 3A state tournament squad last season. To make things worse, guards Mark Stone and Mitch Wagner (expected to play a lot) are serving suspensions for violating school policy.

While they're gone, it has been the Gunderson-Landuyt show. The guards are leading Marion (2-1) in scoring in the very early going, both averaging double figures.

Landuyt had 11 points Tuesday night, as the Indians built a 25-10 halftime lead on a CCA team missing four suspended players, including guard Clay Miller, who averaged over 17 points last season as a junior.

"We were happy with our first half," Marion Coach Mike Manderscheid said. "I thought we executed, did the things we wanted to do. Played well defensively at times. Then the second half, for whatever reason ... we decided we were going to do whatever we were going to do. I guess we were up enough to where we thought we could do that."

"We've still got to clean up a few things," Gunderson agreed.

Forward Jared Huhndorf also had 11 points for Marion, Kam Kahler's 12 points led Clear Creek-Amana (0-3), which shot under 30 percent from the field and had 21 turnovers.

Here is the game boxscore:

AT MARION

CLEAR CREEK-AMANA (30): Kam Kahler 4-7 1-2 12, Lukas Jones 0-5 0-4 0, Josh Berner 2-4 0-1 4, Dillon Villhauer 2-8 4-4 8, Caleb Sedlacek 1-5 1-2 5, Tony Pederson 0-1 0-2 0, Zach Smith 1-1 1-2 3, Keyan McAreavy 0-0 0-0 0, Cody Wagner 0-1 0-0 0, Nick Strasser 0-0 0-0 0, Nile Rourke 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 10-32 7-17 30.

MARION (50): Isaac Frazier 0-4 2-2 2, Jared Huhndorf 5-8 1-3 11, Brenden Landuyt 4-9 2-2 11, Cale Cannoy 0-3 0-0 0, Tyler Gunderson 6-11 5-6 18, Jake McDonald 1-1 0-1 2, Andrew Davis 2-5 0-0 0, Chayse Wheeler 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Hedtke 0-1 0-0 0, Colton Storla 1-1 0-0 2, Ben Buckley 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Connolly 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-44 10-14 50.

Halftime - Marion 25, Clear Creek-Amana 10. 3-point goals - Clear Creek-Amana 3-9 (Kahler 3-5, Berner 0-2, Villhauer 0-2), Marion 2-8 (Landuyt 1-4, Cannoy 0-2, Gunderson 1-2). Rebounds - Clear Creek-Amana 22 (Kahler, Pederson 5), Marion 30 (Frazier, Landuyt 5). Total fouls - Clear Creek-Amana 15, Marion 17. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Clear Creek-Amana 21, Marion 16.