MAC Girls Basketball Game of the Week - Marion Local at New Knoxville

With two losses in Midwest Athletic Conference action, the Marion Local Flyers look to begin the 2013 calendar year by playing a spoilers role for those MAC teams remaining who still harbor hope of raising a conference trophy. This week, the Flyers will clash with Tim Hegemier’s New Knoxville Rangers, who at 2-1 in the conference look to pick up their second league win in as many weeks. “We are young and even at this point in the season, there are still lots for our girls to learn,” commented Hegemier. “We have been battling an injury and illness bug as of late and working with a lot of different combinations. That has been a little bit of a struggle, so we are hoping to get that figured out.”

The Rangers (8-3, 2-1) have enjoyed three straight wins since Christmas – a 53-42 win over Botkins, a 54- 33 victory over St. Henry in Midwest Athletic Conference action last Thursday, and a 49-42 win against Waynesfield-Goshen Tuesday night. The victory over St. Henry pushed them to 2-1 in the conference and Hegemier would love nothing more than to notch his third league win of the season on Thursday at home. “Offensively, Paige Lehman, Haley Horstman, and Meg Reineke have all been consistent for us, so we expect that to stay the same,” he explained. “If we want to have a chance against Marion Local though, we are going to need to slow them down. They have been pushing it up and down the floor with a lot of success, so we are going to need to get back on defense and defend their high-low.”

For Treva Fortkamp’s Flyers, the first half of this season has been defined by streaks. Following a season-opening loss to state –ranked Fort Loramie, the Blue and Gold sputtered to a 1-2 start before reeling off six straight wins to shut down the 2012 portion of the schedule with a 7-2 overall mark. Last Thursday, they dropped their second conference game of the year in overtime to Minster, and on Saturday were upended by Anna, 62-46.

by Robb Hemmelgarn