New Philadelphia High was a three-point thorn in Marietta High's side during the first East Central Ohio League meeting at Sutton Gymnasium on Dec. 30, 2011.
The Chad Spurgeon-coached Quakers drained six from behind the arc in the first half en route to a 55-40 win.
"As a team, we look for layups and threes in that order," said Spurgeon after the game. "Marietta scared me to death. We were very fortunate to win."
Going from a zone to a man-to-man defense in the third and fourth quarters, the J.D. Secrest-led Tigers outpointed New Philly 26-25. But by that time, it was too late to affect the outcome.
"The kids battled but it took a lot of energy to come back in the third quarter," said Secrest after the contest.
Look for MHS (7-6 overall, 4-3 ECOL) to play more man when it faces the Quakers in the scheduled return engagement at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Marietta is looking forward to the ECOL matchup as the orange and black are coming off a 68-63 payback triumph over visiting Coshocton last Saturday night. The Tigers were beaten pretty handily (68-42) by the Redskins the first time around, too.
MHS has been playing pretty good basketball of late. After the setback to New Philadelphia, the Tigers won three straight.
And, before knocking off Coschocton, Marietta was a handful for No. 5-ranked Warren in Vincent before dropping a 44-39 decision.
Going into Friday's contest, MHS has won four of its last five games.
MHS is expected to start Tim Grosel, Eli Lenington, Nathan Williams, Braden Riley and Justin Futrell. Matt Thompson and Jordan Satterfield will be the first off the pine.
Against Coshocton, Marietta enjoyed a balanced attack as Grosel scored 25 points, Lenington and Thompson had 12 apiece, and Williams chipped in with 10.
Grosel scored a game-high 22 points in the late-December game vs. New Philly.
New Philadelphia will probably counter with Ronnie Miller (6-1, sr.), Brandon Fowler (6-2, sr.), Marco Colombo (6-2, soph.), Jamal Johnson (5-6, soph.) and Ethan Boose (6-4, soph.).
Scott Kinsey (6-4, sr.) had a game-high 16 points as a non-starter in the win at Sutton Gym.
Caleb Beans (6-2, soph.) should also see significant playing time. Against Coshocton on Jan. 13, he scored a game-high 15 points.
Miller, Fowler, Colombo all have excellent three-point range, and Marietta will have to know where each of them is at all times.
Johnson, a standout football player at New Philly, is the point and only attempted one shot in the first game, but he's very athletic and lightning quick.
