The Marion Indians claimed their share of the Wamac Conference West Division title by beating Benton Community, 61-40, on Tuesday at Marion.

Both Marion and Benton were tied in the standings coming into the game to decide who would join Williamsburg atop the Wamac West.

"We knew what was on the line," said senior guard Kasey Semler. "It was either win a title or not."

The Indians decided on the former.

 "This whole year we kind of started out slow, and like coach said in the locker room, 'If you can't get up for this game, I don't even know if you should be playing basketball,'" said senior guard Dusty Albaugh.

Marion (12-7, 12-5) capitalized on the energy coming out of the locker room and took control of the game early behind strong 3-point shooting from Albaugh and Semler, who both hit a pair of 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the game, giving the Indians a 14-2 lead.

"I thought that was a huge key for us, to just come out and be focused and ready to go," said Coach Mike Manderscheild. "Good atmosphere with the crowd we had out here tonight and the conference title on the line."

Marion led throughout the contest, stretching a 32-20 halftime lead when Semler scored five straight points to open the second half and push the lead to 17. Benton never got closer than 14 as the Indians cruised to victory.

"They just didn't have the best shooting night and we had to capitalize on that," Albaugh said. "That was big for us because when they are hitting shots it's like a roller coaster."

The Indians were lead by a trio of seniors in double digits with Semler, Albaugh and Dan Van Gorp scoring 21, 13 and 10, respectively.

Benton was led by senior forwards Zach Twedt with 17 points and Mitch Lester with 10 for the Bobcats.

One suprise out of the Marion offense was a little nifty passing with multiple no-look and behind-the-back passes.

"I think we just came out of our shell a little bit," Semler said. "Our coach doesn't mind if we do that stuff if it works. We'd probably end up on the bench if we throw it out of bounds."

Coach Manderscheild seemed more pleased with who they were passing to than worried abour how they chose to get it there.

"That's what we took tonight," Manderscheild said of the highlight-reel passing. "I thought we did a nice job, especially in the first half of finding the open man and trusting our teammates and that will pay off."

The Indians' run to the division championship took a hit as they struggled through January with a 4-5 record.

"Coming out of January, it was a tough month for us," Manderscheild said. "We told the kids in the locker room that we are pretty happy with getting a share of the Western Division title coming from where we were.

The players seemed pleased as well.

"I don't mind sharing," Albaugh said. "It's still got our name on it. That's good enough."

In fact, for the senior class, the dramatic finish to the season to grab a share of the conference title is all they could hope for.

"It's something that I have been looking forward to from freshman year, from little kid ball, to be a part of this team and get a championship," Van Gorp said.

MARION (61): Dusty Albaugh 0 0-0 10, Tyler Fisher 2 0-0 2, Cale Cannoy 0 0-0 0, Tre Kinny 0 0-0 0, Dylan Cronk 0 0-0 0, Kasey Semler 0 5-7 21, Mitch Wagner 1 0-0 0, Dan Van Gorp 0 2-4 10, Jared Huhndorf 0 0-0 0, Mark Stone 1 0-0 9, Josh Davila 4 0-0 4, austin Hardman 4 0-0 4, Tyler Hedtke 0 0-0 0, Isaac Frazier 2 2-2 2, Jake McDonald 0 0-0 0.

BENTON (40): Jordan Kearns 0 0-0 3, Austin Cassell 2 0-0 2, Brady Stramer 0 0-0 0, Cory Christensen 0 0-0 0 Ethan Strellner 0 0-0 0, Seth Schulte 0 0-0 0, Rob Becker 0 0-0 0, Nick Schrader 0 0-0 0, Mitch Lester 3 0-0 10, Zach Twedt 2 7-8 17, Ben Markland 0 1-3 3, Ben Thompson 3 1-1 7, Jake Stenberg 2 0-0 0, Cody Mather 0 0-0 0, Robert Rathje 1 0-0 0.