Heidelberg's Rebecca Luna drives against Jada Perry of Kaiserslautern in the Lady Lions' 38-36 win over the visiting Raiders on opening day of the 2011-12 DODDS-Europe basketball season Friday night. (Michael Abrams/Stars and Stripes)
HEIDELBERG, Germany – Marlowe Muehlbauer and Marcel Simon wielded the daggers Friday night to boost the Heidelberg girls and boys to season-opening basketball victories over their no-quit counterparts from Division I Kaiserslautern.Muehlbauer scored her fourth point of the game as time expired, giving the Lady Lions a 38-36 victory over the Lady Raiders, and Simon scored 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out six assists as the Lions held off the Raiders 74-70. Both games were non-regional contests.Heidelberg girls 38, Kaiserslautern Lady Raiders 36: Muehlbauer made just two buckets, but they were the last two of the night for Heidelberg. On the game-winner, she took an inbounds pass from Kylee Miller with 1.2 seconds to go and drained an off-balance shot from 15 feet along the left baseline.The shot ended an astounding comeback bid by the Lady Raiders, who posted a 16-2 run over the first 6 minutes 23 seconds of the final stanza. Jada Perry scored eight of her team-high 12 points during the run, which began with the Lady Raiders trailing 34-20.Muehlbauer, however, came up big as the clock would down. First, she hit the bucket that tied the game at 36 and erased K-town’s only lead of the game, 36-34. It was Heidelberg’s first bucket of the period, and Muehlbauer’s first of the game.Next, Muehlbauer atoned for bricking a low-percentage shot with a minute to go by running down K-town’s Martha Bonilla who was on a fast break drive to the hoop with 50 seconds to go. Muehlbauer blocked Bonilla’s layup cleanly.K-town was bidding to take the lead again as time was running out, but Heidelberg’s Aileen Donnelly blocked a put-back try by K-town’s 6-2 center Angela Powell, forcing Powell to travel and set up the decisive inbounds play.After a timeout, the officials determined there were 1.2 seconds to play, and Heidelberg inbounded along the left sideline just past half-court. “The play was supposed to run toward center,” Murray said. “But it was covered. Marlowe was wide open, so I passed to her and she finished it.”Muehlbauer said the shot set up perfectly for her.“I’m left-handed,” she said.Muehlbauer said K-town’s fast finish didn’t faze her team.“We have heart,” she said. “We knew we had to push through it.”Rebecca Luna led Heidelberg with 17 points.“This game was a confidence-booster,” said Luna, who was 7-of-11 from the free-throw line. “We have a lot of talent and we’re building chemistry every day.”Heidelberg boys 74, Kaiserslautern 70: Three Red Raiders and two Lions fouled out of this contest, which could have been a Heidelberg blowout in the early going.K-town starter James Bradley picked up his third foul with 3:32 to go in the first period and put Heidelberg into the bonus for the rest of the half. The Lions went on to score 14 of their 31 first-half points from the line.Worse, long-ball ace Andy Stern missed all eight of his tries from behind the arc in the first half, managing just two free throws as the Lions twice posted 10 points leads.But Derryck Scarvers, who would finish with a game-high 27 points, completed his 12-point first half with a three-ball at the buzzer that put K-town ahead for the first time in the game at 32-31.Scarvers continued his onslaught after intermission to help K-town forge leads as large as seven points before the Lions rallied.Wayne Dawkins, who scored 12 points, got half of those in the third quarter to start the Heidelberg comeback. Marcel Simon, Maurice Simon, Mezzan El Sayed, Kevin Gray and hard-nosed Jacob Parsons played key roles as the Lions regained the lead for good at 52-49 with 1:01 left in the third period.The victory was the eighth in a row for Heidelberg, the defending European Division I champions. The Lions are scheduled to open their Region III season this Friday when they entertain newcomer Schweinfurt.K-town is to host Bitburg on Friday in the Region II opener for both of those teams.bryanr@estripes.osd.mil