{"id":204031,"date":"2026-03-21T00:36:05","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=204031"},"modified":"2026-03-21T00:36:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:36:06","slug":"taller-flyers-shut-down-lincolnview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2026\/03\/21\/taller-flyers-shut-down-lincolnview\/","title":{"rendered":"Taller Flyers shut down Lincolnview"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

FAIRBORN — Marion Local\u2019s size and length proved to be too much for Lincolnview to overcome, as the No. 1 ranked Flyers pulled away from the Lancers for a 46-30 win in the Division VI state semifinals at Wright State University\u2019s Ervin J. Nutter Center Friday night, ending Lincolnview’s remarkable run. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With four of five starters going 6-2 or taller, Marion Local controlled the boards, finishing with a 26-14 rebounding advantage and eight blocked shots, not to mention a number of other Lincolnview shots that were altered by the taller Flyers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cComing in we knew Marion Local was going to be a heck of a basketball team,\u201d Lincolnview head coach Brett Hammons said. \u201cWe told other people there\u2019s a reason they\u2019re No. 1 in the state, with their only loss to Delphos St. John\u2019s. We knew it was going to be a challenge and we knew the uphill battle we had to face when it came to size and physicality \u2013 we preached that all week long.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Trying to shoot over the taller Marion Local Flyers was a challenge for Max Hammons (2) and the Lancers. Photo courtesy of Hanna Young<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cComing in I thought our kids battled for the most part,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe got in a little bit of foul trouble which kind of hurt us but I thought we battled, we just struggled to score and if you look at a lot of teams\u2019 scoring outputs against them, a lot of teams are in the 30s because they do such a great job on the defensive end with their physicality and their length and how well they\u2019re coached. It just gave us problems and it was tough to get shots off tonight and I think the final score doesn\u2019t dictate how close the game was and how hard we battled.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGive credit to Marion Local \u2013 they were able to execute and make their free throws down the stretch. It\u2019s a tough one to take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that was a great basketball game between two really good northwest (Ohio) high school basketball programs,\u201d Marion Local head coach Kurt Goettemoeller said. \u201cCredit to coach Hammons \u2013 they are really hard to guard and he has absolutely maximized that team this year. They play as hard as anybody we\u2019ve seen all year. They\u2019re the best cutting team we\u2019ve seen all year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lancers did indeed hang with Marion Local in the first quarter and trailed by just two, 14-12 at the end of the period. However, Gavin Evans was saddled with two fouls midway through the opening quarter and had to sit. Lincolnview\u2019s only lead of the game was 8-7 on a layup by Chayse Overholt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the score remained close in the second quarter, points were at a premium. 6-2 senior Brayden Mescher scored six of Marion Local\u2019s eight points in the quarter while Max Hammons accounted for all seven of Lincolnview\u2019s points in the period, and Marion Local led 22-19 at the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evans picked up his third foul 45 seconds into the third quarter and back-to-back buckets by Mescher put the Flyers ahead 29-22. Max Hammons answered with two buckets of his own to pulled the Lancers to within three 29-26, but Lincolnview did not score again for over five minutes and trailed 32-26 to start the final period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the second half we just really locked in defensively,\u201d Goettemoeller said. \u201cWe finally got a 5-7 point lead where we could spread them out and once we were able to spread them out we were able to get to the rim and get some easy ones, but the final score is not indicative of how tough the game was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mescher, who finished with a game high 23 points, scored seven straight points in the fourth quarter, and the Flyers used those points, defense and blocked shots, and free throws down the stretch to secure the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s 6-2 and athletic and built like a brick,\u201d Hammons said of Mescher. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to stay in front of a guy like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Local finished 16-of-32 from the floor, including 3-of-14 from three point range, and 11-17 from the foul line. Kale Ahrens finished with eight points, while Brennen Hess and Grant Kremer combined for 14 rebounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview was 13-of-33 shooting but just 1-of-7 from long range. The Lancers went to the foul line just four times, converting three. Hammons finished with 15 points and three rebounds, while Marshall Hammons added six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Marion Local (26-1) returns to the title game to face Berlin-Hiland at 7:30 tonight, the Lancers saw their season come to an end at 22-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone doubted us \u2013 we were 5-18 last year,\u201d Hammons said. These seniors (Evans, Overholt, Holden Price, Jackson Ingledue, Lucas Grubb, Grant Zielke and Kody Hamilton) through three years of high school had 13 wins combined and for us to end up the year 22-6 and losing a state semifinal game, it\u2019s unbelievable. It\u2019s something people are going to remember down the road \u2013 the ride they took us on. It\u2019s the seniors, it\u2019s the rest of our players \u2013 it\u2019s been so darn fun coaching them throughout this entire year and words can\u2019t really describe how I feel at this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Box score<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Local  14   8  10  14 \u2013 46<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview    12   7    7    4 \u2013 30<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marion Local:<\/strong> Brennen Hess 1-0-2; Grant Kremer 3-0-9; Luke Everman 1-0-2; Kale Ahrens 3-2-8; Brayden Mescher 8-7-23; Isaac Moeller 0-2-2<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lincolnview:<\/strong> Max Hammons 6-2-15; Gavin Evans 1-1-3; Chayse Overholt 1-0-2; Marshall Hammons 3-0-6; Emryn Hatfield 2-0-4<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent editor FAIRBORN — Marion Local\u2019s size and length proved to be too much for Lincolnview to overcome, as the No. 1 ranked Flyers pulled away from the Lancers for a 46-30 win in the Division VI state semifinals at Wright State University\u2019s Ervin J. Nutter Center Friday night, ending Lincolnview’s remarkable run. With […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 00:02:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204031"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204034,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204031\/revisions\/204034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}