NORTH MANCHESTER - This boy in Manchester High School's student section, he remembered.

All you had to do was read the back of his red T-shirt. "Moe-Mania," it read. He broke out the T-shirt from four years ago, when head coach Moe Smedley's Manchester Squires basketball team went 20-0 during the regular season

For one night and one night only, Moe-Mania returned to Manchester High School this weekend. Except this time Moe was the enemy, the villain, the coach of those big-school, tradition-rich, always-winning, fourth-ranked in Class 4A Marion Giants. And the students, they didn't let him forget that. Whenever Smedley complained to the refs, Manchester's student section rode him with derisive Moe...Moe...Moe chants.

Try as they might, neither Manchester's basketball team nor its fans could stop Marion when they needed to. Marion had Moe-Mania - not to mention loads of talent - on its side, and the Giants charged late to win 62-55 on Saturday.

Marion improved to 9-1 overall, while the Squires, who are ranked fifth in Class 2A, fell to 8-2.

"Our kids earned a lot of respect tonight," Manchester coach Gary Goshert said. "They gotta feel like they can play with any basketball team in the state. That means any class. They're disappointed. I'm disappointed. We didn't totally accomplish what we wanted to. But our kids have nothing to hang their heads about."

Some Marion fans and players, considering this was just small-school Manchester, may have written this one down as an automatic "W" before it started. Smedley, for one, did not. He knew what was coming. He saw a fundamentally sound Manchester team with good shot selection with players just dying to knock off Marion. Add to that the Squires were 8-1.

"I knew what the atmosphere was here," Smedley said. "My kids didn't know what it was. The crowd's certainly a big factor at Manchester. The kids were caught up in it a little. You have to give Manchester credit for playing the kind of basketball they needed to play to beat a team like us. They were very disciplined.

"They fought us down even less than a minute when we had a 10-point lead. They weren't going to give up. Their never-say-die attitude is still here. I think that's why Manchester wins a lot of games every year."

For three quarters, the Squires did everything right. But all Marion would need to turn the game around was the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Squires, who committed only six turnovers through three quarters, lost the ball five times in the first four minutes of the fourth frame. The Giants turned the first two turnovers into five points. What was a 41-38 Marion lead at the start of the fourth turned into a 46-38 lead 41 seconds into the quarter. The first two points came on a layup by JoJo Williams, while the next three came on a Kyle Chin three-pointer.

When it wasn't the turnovers doing the Squires in, it was the defensive rebounds. The Squires, who for three quarters held their own on the boards against a much taller Marion team, allowed five offensive rebounds the fourth quarter. If the Giants weren't making layups after Manchester turnovers, they were getting offensive rebounds and making tip-ins after their misses.

Those two numbers - five turnovers and five offensive rebounds -Êwere a big reason Marion turned a 41-38 lead into a 58-48 lead with 36 seconds to go. The Giants owned the fourth quarter, maintaining an eight- to 10-point lead most of the time.

"What ended up being the basketball game was some offensive putbacks -Êthis all happened in a two-minute span - and their dribble penetration," Goshert said. "They ended up making three-point plays on dribble penetration. That was what made the difference."

One of those three-point plays came at a crucial time at the end of the third quarter. When Manchester forward Scot Croner swished a three-pointer to tie the game at 38-38 with 21 seconds left, the Manchester fans erupted. Their Squires owned the momentum, and surely it would carry them into the fourth quarter.

It didn't.

Marion point guard Andre Betts made a layup and drew a foul with seven seconds left in the third. He hit his free throw, giving Marion the 41-38 lead going into the fourth. More importantly, it switched the momentum back to their side. Betts triggered Marion's 8-0 run that put the Giants up 46-38 and gave them control.

Still, Goshert left this game thrilled with his team's effort. He had said all week his main concern was Friday's game with Oak Hill, a 62-45 win for Manchester. He repeated that after the loss to Marion. Manchester had played less than 24 hours earlier; Marion was fresh after a two-week layoff.

"I'm proud of our kids," Goshert said. "You have to realize we had two games this weekend. Oak Hill was the most important one. That was a conference game. That was the one we spent our preparation for. For no more time than we had to prepare for Marion, I'm proud of what we accomplished against Marion."

The Squires again received a balanced scoring effort, as has been the case most games. Center Chris Enyeart scored 14, Scot Croner 12, Rex Reimer nine and Chris Good nine.

Chin led Marion with 17 points, while Williams added 16.

Manchester's biggest leads came late in the second quarter, when the Squires were up by five twice. The Squires led 26-24 at the half as they frustrated Marion's leading scorer, 6-foot-8 sophomore Zach Randolph. Randolph, who came in averaging 18 points per game, had zero at halftime.

"I think the atmosphere got our kids out of synch early in the game," Smedley said. "Then we had the two-week layoff - Manchester had played three games, we hadn't played any. Plus they're scrappy and a good team. Their shot selection was good. It was a combination of all those things. I was very pleased we were down only two at the half. We could have been down 10.

"It was a good win for us. The fact that we won some under some adverse conditions, the crowd in the game and some early foul trouble for us." [[In-content Ad]]