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Tigers erase 15-point halftime deficit to beat Perry

By Jay W. Bennett 4 min read

MARIETTA -- Zaiden Wittekind's jam just prior to the final horn here Saturday night inside Sutton Gymnasium capped Marietta's 55-47 come-from-behind victory against Perry.

Luke Wolf scored 16 of his team-high 19 points in the opening half as the Panthers (2-4) of head coach Matt Voll led 31-16 at intermission.

However, the Tigers of second-year boss Austin Gardner turned to University of Findlay signee Alex Kendall, who poured in 25 of his game-high 29 points in the second half.

"I'm lost for words. I got a little water shower afterward," said a smiling Gardner, who watched Kendall grab a game-high seven boards and join teammate Elyjah Lieras-Kelley with a game-high three steals. "Man, I'm soaked right now. We got kicked in the first half. Massillon Perry did exactly what we thought they would. They made shots and played confident.

"At halftime, it wasn't yelling. Some people probably think what did you say or what did you do and it was nothing. At the end of the day it was we stick to our principles. We got to pressure the ball a little bit more, play with some intensity and fire and our group did that. Our bench was tremendous on the sideline, whether guys played or not. That was a big-time team effort and win. It was a great atmosphere."

Perry, which shot 12 of 23 in the first half that included knocking down 4 of 7 from beyond the arc, had just four turnovers at the break. Marietta's defense forced nine turnovers in the third and the Tigers held a 41-40 edge entering the fourth after opening the stanza on a 10-0 run.

"First half we just got off to a really slow start," admitted Kendall, who watched Izak Knighten go for 10 points and Wittekind eight. "One thing about the team, we know that we started off sluggish but we knew what we needed to do.

"We embraced it. We embraced the atmosphere and the position we were in and we took advantage of it and we came out second half and went full-throttle on them, and took it to them."

Kendall opened the second half by faking a 3 and then driving baseline for a jam to start the key spurt. Wittekind followed with a layup and Knighten had a pair of hoops between a pair of Kendall charity stripe makes. Kendall drained 13 of 15 from the line and the Tigers finished 22 of 27.

Kyson Walker's runner for part of his eight points finally got the Panthers on the board and made the score 33-26.

However, Kendall followed with 10 straight points. It started with a putback and then he had a spinning lay-in and followed it with a steal and a layup. When he made two free throws at the 3:27 mark, the Tigers went ahead 34-33.

The Tiger faithful in attendance were then treated to Kendall taking the ball from the wing, going behind his back with the dribble and then flushing a monster dunk.

Darnell McLeod, who scored a baker's dozen in the setback, converted a foul shot with 3:18 remaining to tie the game for the final time at 47-all.

Kendall, though, proceeded to score the next six orange and black points from the foul line.

"We poured some water on him after the win. We were pretty amped up. He got some water and got a shower today. He'll have to take another one when he gets home," Kendall said of the postgame celebration in the locker room.

McLeod contributed a trio of assists and joined Wolf with a pair of steals.

Lieras-Kelley finished with five points and Brayden Jones had the Tigers' only made 3 out of eight attempts.

"I think the guys kept saying coach is going to rip us and get on us here, but that wasn't the case," added coach Gardner, whose team plays Tuesday at Federal Hocking, of halftime.

"We stuck to our principles and did what we're supposed to. Then offensively we executed big-time."

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

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