Solon outslugs Marion, 42-32

MARION – They need more cowbell.

The Solon Spartans dressed in the Marion High School band room for their Class 3A substate semifinal Monday night. That was their locker room.

It was a lucky locker room, as it turned out, as Solon out-defended Marion, 42-32, in a game that both teams found hard to score. The Spartans have the unenviable task of taking on seventh-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier in a district final Thursday night here.

They want to go right back to the band room.

'If we can do that from now on, sign me up,” said Solon Coach Jason Pershing. 'I'll bang on that cowbell a little bit more.”

Solon (10-12) banged on Marion pretty good defensively. Honestly, it was more a matchup 2-3 zone that completely flustered the Indians.

Pershing has stressed man-to-man defense in his first season, a complete departure from previous longtime Coach Brad Randall's 1-3-1 zone. Therefore it was kind of funny how something other than man worked wonders.

'Getting in and out of it helped,” Pershing said. :Obviously our main goal is to play man defense. That's the ultimate goal. But being a little bit of a chameleon and switching it up made a difference … It worked.”

Marion (14-8), which was the top seed in this district, was an ugly 22 percent from the field. It didn't help that leading scorer Craig Engle was less than 100-percent physically because of a sprained ankle that kept him out of the Indians regular-season finale.

Marion scored 22 points in that game against DeWitt Central. This one didn't go much better offensively.

'Making shots is the name of the game,” said Marion Coach Mike Manderscheid. 'Jason did a good job staying in a zone. It was working.”

Engle finished with a team-high 10 points, though he was just 3 of 11 from the field. This was a tight game throughout, with Solon up at the quarter breaks, 10-9, 15-14 and 27-23.

An Engle 3 with 2:34 left made it a 35-32 game, but Marion didn't score again. Emilio Villagrana and Streeter McIlravy had 11 points each for Solon, with Jake Coons adding 10.

McIlravy, by the way, is the son of former University of Iowa wrestling national champion Lincoln McIlravy.

'We knew Craig was their best player, so we decided to focus on him more,” Villagrana said. 'I think our zone really helped us control everyone on their team. We knew their shooters and just kind of matched up. Then when we went to man, we made sure they weren't getting open looks.”

'When we started out (this season), we just had so much learning to do,” said Pershing. 'We had one kid returning. We implemented man-to-man defense, and they hadn't done that before. And we run a motion offense, a little more freedom, and that was also different. You still see us struggle here and there with that. We've won some big games and probably lost some games where we shouldn't have gotten beat. But I think it's been a huge success. The guys have had a great time.”

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AT MARION

SOLON (42): Streeter McIlravy 3 5-6 11, Jake Coons 3 3-4 10, Jackson Rushek 0 0-0 0, Bo Black 2 1-1 5, Emilio Villagrana 4 0-0 11, Halston Durr 1 1-2 3, Adam Runyan 1 0-1 2, Luke Ira 0 0-0 0, Brandan Childs 0 0-0 0. Totals 14 10-14 42.

MARION (32): Derek Smith 1 0-0 2, DeShaun Quinn 0 0-0 0, Craig Engle 3 3-3 10, Jacob Manderscheid 2 2-2 7, Baylor Fish 3 0-2 6, Terrence Williams 1 2-2 5, Devin Quinn 0 0-2 0, Cody Alberts 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 7-11 32.

Halftime - Solon 15, Marion 14. 3-point goals - Solon 4 (Cooks, Villagrana 3), Marion 3 (Engle, Manderscheid, Williams). Rebounds - Solon 21 (Cooks 5), Marion 28 (Smith, Manderscheid, Williams 5). Total fouls - Solon 13, Marion 14. Fouled out - Smith. Turnovers - Solon 14, Marion 18.

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