The 80-70 win over STLCC-Florissant Valley Fury pushed STLCC-Meramec Magic Men’s Basketball team into the Region XVI Championship Mar. 6 against the Penn Valley Scouts of Kansas City, Mo. Meramec hosted the Region XVI Championship for the first time in 30 years.
Joe Ray
– Assistant Online Editor –
The 80-70 win over STLCC-Florissant Valley Fury pushed STLCC-Meramec Magic Men’s Basketball team into the Region XVI Championship Mar. 6 against the Penn Valley Scouts of Kansas City, Mo. Meramec hosted the Region XVI Championship for the first time in 30 years.
The Magic were coming off a 20-10 season, while clinching their 25th consecutive winning season.
As the season came to a close and tournament play started three Meramec players who had a magical season were named to the All Region first team: Dietrick Sooter, guard, Josh Dale, forward, and Dallis Johnson, center.
The Magic went into halftime leading 33-30. Coach Albrecht stressed the importance of better play. “If we play well we can get over the hump here. We need to do a few things, finish around the basket: we need to take better care of the ball, and we need to defend them a little better around the three-point shooters,” Albrecht said.
After halftime the Magic started off rough and allowed the Fury to make it a close game. The Magic started to give away costly turnovers and their defense, which ranked second in the Region, started to foul. Forward John Alexander of the Magic was one of the starters that fouled out early and Josh Dale, forward, would eventually four out. Their rebounding on both ends kept them in the game against the Fury, though.
Albrecht expressed his concern on lack of ball control, “We haven’t played for ten days. That’s part of the reason. When you don’t play for ten days, you lose a little edge.”
The transition defense started to slow down and the Fury continued to make lay ups as they went across court. They would also pressure the Magic with a full-court press, which would cause the Magic to miss easy shots. Albrecht was walking up and down the sideline prompting his team to make good shots.
With less than three minutes left in the game, the Magic started to pull away with the win. The Magic started to make accurate passes and were making the easy shots. The Magic’s resilience slowed the Fury’s offense down.
The Fury kept fouling with less than a minute left to slow the game down, but wouldn’t inch any closer to tying it up. The Magic knew they would move on to the next round and extend their season.
The five freshmen and four sophomores on the team showed team effort and good team chemistry. The young Magic showed this chemistry when they landed the number one seed in the tournament. It was an indication of their success throughout the season.
“I think it was a whole team effort. We got some good bench play. Whatever we get off the bench, it supported us pretty good,” Albrecht said.
The Magic eventually would play the Scouts on March 6, but it would be the last game for the Magic. They lost 63-62, to the team they beat, on Feb. 6, in a very close game that came down to the last seconds of the game.
