Ritzel and Marlow Drop 45+ as Nashville Wins at Buzzer

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>WHAT. A. SHOW!&nbsp; Sometimes everything lines up perfectly for an epic game and that is exactly what happened on Friday night as Nashville hosted Webber in the final game of the regular season.&nbsp; Nashville came in 28-2 and one of the 2A favorites.&nbsp; Webber was 24-5 and can do damage in 1A.&nbsp; Oh yea two of the best scorers in southern Illinois history were going head to head in 3,000+ point scorer [player_tooltip player_id='2823510' first='Nathaniel' last='Marlow'] and 2,000+ point scorer [player_tooltip player_id='1552415' first='Maddox' last='Ritzel']!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Epic Ending</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The game lived up to the hype as Nashville led most of the night, but Webber stormed back to take the lead.&nbsp; The two stars went back and forth all night long.&nbsp; With 2 seconds left Nashville ran the play for Ritzel getting him the ball at the top of the key as he took it downhill for a runner that hit the front rim, back rim, and in for the Nashville win 79-77.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Ritzel Has All Time Senior Night</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Pretty much everything you could do in a high school basketball game on Friday night [player_tooltip player_id='1552415' first='Maddox' last='Ritzel'] did.&nbsp; The senior strong bodied guard became the single season scoring leader in Nashville history.&nbsp; Then recorded his 39^th point to become the all-time career leader in Hornets history.&nbsp; He capped off an epic regular season by scoring the game winner on a floater for the win at the buzzer while scoring 45 points on the night!&nbsp; He did it the way he always has.&nbsp; Toughness, physicality, and skill.&nbsp; Three ball off movement, multiple powerful straight line takes, baseline spins out of the post, hit the offensive glass, and got to the foul line.&nbsp; Scored on cuts off the ball and in transition.&nbsp; Extremely skilled two guard that just knows how to get stuff done.&nbsp; Executed his moves over and over all night.&nbsp; He has been productive in every setting we have ever seen him.&nbsp; Delivered again on his senior night.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Marlow Carries Webber</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>On a night without two starters the best player in Webber history scored 46 points!  Senior [player_tooltip player_id='2823510' first='Nathaniel' last='Marlow'] was absolutely unconscious with his shot making from all over the floor.  He takes and makes super difficult shots on a consistent basis.  Love the pace that he plays with utilizing hang dribbles and hesitation to set up his moves.  Not the most athletic player he has a knack for getting an edge and finishing through and around defenders in the paint.  The jump shot making was just stupid at times hitting threes being doubled falling out of bounds.  Moves very well without the ball on dribble handoffs, curls, and other actions.  Quick release on his shot including creating on crossovers and rising up for triples making them or getting fouled.  The state's 4^th all-time leading scorer left quite an impression in his final regular season game.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Did Anyone Else Score?</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Outside of Ritzel Nashville got a nice game from [player_tooltip player_id='2831750' first='Gannon' last='Turner'].&nbsp; The 2027 guard brought a spark with several quick drives and a three ball for 10 points.&nbsp; Kassidy Linke (8 points) and [player_tooltip player_id='2872944' first='Brenton' last='Bultman'] (5 points) also hit some key long balls.&nbsp; Webber got a nice game from [player_tooltip player_id='2826283' first='Jacob' last='Marlow'] as the sophomore is actually more athletic than his older brother.&nbsp; Pure jumper in the mid-range off the bounce and can stretch to three spotting up.&nbsp; Several key buckets down the stretch on baseline spin along with an and-1 notching 14 points.&nbsp; Bryden Dalby is a fellow 2028 with length that knocked down several clean looking long balls along with scoring on slashes for 10 points.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->