Shelby's 41 lead Marion to state for first time since 1952

By Jeff Johnson The Gazette CEDAR RAPIDS [--] Do you know who Hugh Leffingwell is? That question was posed to Marion's Amry Shelby last night. "Yeah, I do," Shelby said with a grin. "His name is all over the place (at school). He's all over the record books, everything." Leffingwell was the greatest boys' basketball player ever at Marion High School. The school's all-time leading scorer and an Iowa High School Athletic Association hoops hall of famer, he played one season for Iowa's famous "Fabulous Five" team before being diagnosed with leukemia and passing away in 1953. He helped Marion to the 1950 and 1952 state tournaments. It's fitting that Shelby knew about that history because last night he lifted his school back to state for the first time since. There aren't enough superlatives to describe the senior point guard's play in an 86-78 Marion win over Mount Pleasant in a Class 3A substate final at the U.S. Cellular Center. Shelby scored 41 points to move the Indians on to Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines next week against an undetermined opponent. "I know (Leffingwell) averaged about 25 a game before the 3-point line," said Marion Coach Mike Manderscheid. "He was just a tremendous, tremendous player. Amry is going to rank right up there when it's all said and done." "I just hope we get in the record books for a state championship," Shelby said. "That's all I'm worried about right now." Calmly maneuvering through full-court pressure, knifing through the lane continuously, hitting short jumpers and even one trey, Shelby made 14 of 18 field goals and 12 of 14 free throws. The Indians (20-4) trailed early, 11-4, but regrouped to make it only a 20-18 deficit by first quarter's end. It was 41-35 Marion at the half and 61-46 after three quarters. The lead grew to as big as 19 points in the fourth, before Mount Pleasant (19-5) spurted within six with 2:32 to play. But Shelby and the Indians remained poised and hit enough free throws to win this up-tempo affair."The last two years we've had the conference championship. We didn't get that this year, but we wanted more," said Marion center Drew Clark, who finished with 15 points on 7-of-8 field-goal shooting, most of those layups courtesy of Shelby passes. "Like Coach said, now we get to hang a banner on the wall of our gym. That means a lot." Scott Hahn scored 25 points to lead Mount Pleasant, which lost at home to Marion in the regular season, 76-70. Shelby, by the way, has scored 31, 33 and 41 points in his team's three postseason games. "When I start to play well, I think my teammates kind of feed off that," said the 5-foot-10 Wayne State (Neb.) signee. "He keeps putting up numbers (points), but I don't know how many assists he keeps on having," Manderscheid said. "He found a lot of guys open tonight. He probably accounted for 55 to 60 of our points. Not only does he have a calming effect on the team, but a calming effect on me."