Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – Ava Stebral insisted the focus for Solon entering Tuesday was solely on getting a win over Marion and not climbing back into the conference title race.

Yet, the Solon senior shooting guard wouldn’t deny knowing where the Spartans sat in the WAMAC East Division pecking order.

“We go one game at a time,” Stebral explained. “After the fact we will see who won and where we sit or what’s an option but we aren’t going into a game saying ‘the conference is on the line’. We take it one game at a time.”

On Tuesday that mantra moved the Spartans one game closer to the top of the conference standings.

Solon held Marion (8-5, 8-3) to 16 second-half points on 22 percent shooting and rallied from an eight-point halftime deficit for a 53-42 win over the Wolves in a WAMAC showdown in Solon.

“I thought we played with a little more energy in the second half,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “I thought we were a little tight early and part of that was Marion but man we played a really good second half.”

Solon closed the game on a 9-0 run over the final 2:50 while improving to 9-6 on the season and 7-4 in WAMAC play and now sits one back of Marion in the East Division standing with five games remaining.

“If you want to win a conference or have some sort of mention in that race you need this one,” Smith said. “We don’t talk a ton about that but we want to win the conference and to do that we had to win that one.”

Callie Levin had 13 of her game-high 21 points in the second half including a three-pointer with 2:50 remaining that gave Solon a 47-42 lead.

The Spartans held Marion scoreless over the final 3:05 while avenging a 41-39 loss to the Wolves on December 14.

Solon has won six of seven games following that December 14 loss in Marion.

“The last time we lost to them it was heartbreaking in the locker room,” Stebral said. “To come back and get this one, especially at home feels amazing.”

Marion outrebounded Solon 23-10 and had 10 offensive rebounds while taking a 26-18 halftime lead.

Solon needed less than three minutes to erase that halftime deficit.

The Spartans opened the second half on a 10-0 run that started with a Kaia Holtkamp basket less than 15 seconds into the half.

“We talked in the locker room about coming out with that defensive energy that we didn’t have the first half,” Callie Levin said. “I think we came out a little scared and the second half we got some steals and Kaia had a huge basket to get that energy flowing.”

Solon was 1-of-8 from three-point range in the opening half but hit four-of-five from beyond the arc in the second half.

Marion led 34-33 after three quarters and the teams went back-and-forth to start the fourth.

Stebral hit a pair of three-pointers in the opening four minutes of the fourth quarter, her second snapped a 37-all tie with 4:17 left.

“I hit one off the bat and I was feeling good and then I kind of went cold for a while but I knew I couldn’t stop shooting,” Stebral said. “I just knew I had to have a better selection of shots.”

Solon took the lead for good on a Makinley Levin basket with 3:33 left.

The Wolves got as close as 44-42 on a Mila Van Weelden driving layup with 3:05 left but Callie Levin hit a three-pointer on the ensuing Spartan possession that pushed the lead back to five and ignited a 9-0 run to end the game.

“We have to hit some threes to beat good teams, our size isn’t comparable to some teams so those were huge threes,” Smith said. “Ava hit a couple of big ones and Callie kind of took the air out of them with a big one late.”

Makinley Levin and Stebral each finished with 12 points for Solon while Ella Bockenstedt led Marion with nine points and 16 rebounds.

Solon                           11   7  15  20  –  53

Marion                       17   9   8    8   –  42

Solon (53) – Mia Stahle 1-2 0-0 2, Claire LaDage 0-2 0-0 0, Ava Stebral 4-9 1-2 12, Kaia Holtkamp 1-3 3-5 5, Hailey Miller 0-3 0-0 0, Makinley Levin 5-10 1-3 12, Callie Levin 6-16 8-11 21, Elly Holubar 0-0 1-2 1, Totals 17-45 14-23 53.

Marion (42) – Ava Attwood 3-10 1-1 8, Regan Rice 1-5 1-2 4, Jenna Heinricy 0-0 2-2 2, Molly Dunne 1-1 0-0 2, Grace Stephenson 1-3 0-0 2, Sadie Struchen 2-8 2-2 7, Ella Bockenstedt 4-13 1-2 9, Mila Van Weelden 4-11 0-0 8, Totals 16-51 7-9 42.

3-point field goals – SOL 5-13 (Stebral 3-8, M. Levin 1-2, C. Levin 1-3), MAR 3-10 (Attwood 1-3, Rice 1-1, Struchen 1-6). Rebounds – SOL 26 (M. Levin, Holubar 6), MAR 44 (Bockenstedt 16). Turnovers – SOL 15, MAR 25. Total fouls – SOL 11, MAR 19. Fouled out – MAR (Attwood). Technical fouls – None.

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