'I like the pressure.' Jackson Horvath seals 9th-straight win for Mishawaka Marian boys

SOUTH BEND — Robb Berger was as confident when Jackson Horvath stepped up to the free-throw line.

“He’s probably our best free-throw shooter,” the Mishawaka Marian head coach said of Horvath.

With the game — and a chance to still win the NIC boys basketball championship — on the line, Horvath sank both foul shots with 2.5 seconds remaining, securing a 54-51 win for the Knights over rival South Bend Saint Joseph Friday night.

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It’s the second big conference game Horvath has helped Marian win in recent weeks, as he knocked down a ‘3’ with 10 seconds to go to beat Penn, 31-28, on Jan. 19.

“I like the pressure,” Horvath said. “I just like to settle down, hit the shots and come up clutch for the team. … I knew the crowd was really loud. I just had to settle down and lock-in on those free throws.”

The victory is the 300th for Berger at Marian and 400th overall for his career, with the other 100 coming between stops at Mishawaka and Wawasee.

Although Marian (13-8, 7-1 NIC) did not trail the final 28 minutes of the game, things were tense in the end. Saint Joseph trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half before going on a rally. A 6-0 spurt to end the third frame cut the deficit to seven.

A pair of ‘3’s’ from freshman Elijah King made it a one-possession game, 47-44, with 3:25 remaining. The margin shrunk to two, 51-49, on a ‘3’ from junior Chase Konieczny with 1:31 to go, and it reached one point with 3.4 seconds left after a Konieczny layup.

Saint Joseph (12-8, 6-3 NIC) was never fully able to get over the hump, though, snapping a six-game winning streak.

“It’s always good to be part of battles and learn from them — it’s one you need to win, though,” Saint Joseph coach Eric Gaff said. “You’ve got to be able to win the big games, especially heading into March.”

With both teams playing in the same sectional, Gaff hopes to see its rival once again in the first week of the postseason.

“I told the guys: win or lose (Friday), this doesn’t give us a sectional championship,” Gaff said. “That’s what we’re here for. We’ll learn from this and, chances are, we’ll have to go through them again to get a sectional title.”

Rhoades the catalyst for Mishawaka Marian once again

Senior Zion Rhoades has blossomed into a star for the Knights as the season has gone on. Friday was no different, as he scored 20 points to lead all scorers. Rhoades’ free throws with 4:28 left in the first quarter to make it 7-6 proved to be the game’s final lead change.

He also anchored a defensive effort that frustrated Saint Joseph for most of the contest.

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“I thought he finished well,” said Berger of Rhoades. “He’s scoring a lot around the basket. That was a big thing. … We tried to take away (Saint Joseph)’s 3-point shooting the best we could on defense, and we did OK with that. (Rhoades) is probably the best we’ve ever had here, as far as playing the middle (of our zone defense). He was going to have all of the inside, and we wanted to have four other guys on the perimeter.”

Major turnaround for the Knights continues

Five weeks ago, Marian sat with a 4-8 record and 0-1 in the Northern Indiana Conference. They’ve won all nine games they’ve played since, including seven NIC contests to put them right back in the championship hunt.

“Give credit to our kids: I’ve coached teams that are 2-6 or 4-8 and its just, ‘lets get to the end of the season,’” Berger said. “But they haven’t had that mentality. They’ve practiced hard, and eventually we’ve made some plays in some close games where we’ve been able to pull them out.”

Horvath credits he and his five fellow seniors for helping spark the winning streak.

“We’ve just got a lot of mental fortitude,” Horvath said. “As seniors, we had to come together. We started off really slow, but we knew what we were capable of doing. We’re hot right now.”

With Penn's 53-47 loss to South Bend Washington Friday, just Marian and South Bend Riley (17-4, 9-1 NIC) are now tied in the loss column in the conference standings with two weeks left in the regular season. Riley has one NIC game left next Friday, Feb. 16 against South Bend Adams, while the Knights’ final three contests are all conference games: next Friday vs. Jimtown, Feb. 20 vs. Elkhart and Feb. 23 at Adams.

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“Ever since the Penn game, we’ve counted these as championship games,” said Berger of their NIC contests. “Next Friday against Jimtown is a championship game. If we’re going to stay in the race, Elkhart is going to be a championship game. We want to be in the conference hunt, and we consider all of these championship games for us.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka Marian boys basketball edges South Bend Saint Joseph for ninth-straight win