Solon rallies past Marion to remain undefeated

MARION - Take a bunch of multi-sport athletes coming off a good football season. Add a move-in point guard who’s one of the top sophomores in the state and the son of the University of Iowa’s first-year men’s coach.

Have a proven head coach do the mixing of this recipe, and what do you have?

Solon’s 2025-26 boys basketball team. One that’s undefeated in Class 3A and ranked No. 6.

“We had to get jelled, and we had the late start with football,” said Solon Coach Jared Galpin, after his Spartans rallied past Marion, 62-56, in a fine Tuesday night boys basketball game. “But a lot of these guys played together last year. This junior class has played a lot of basketball together. So then Tate fitting in, he got a chance to play a lot with us over the summer. We kind of hit the ground running here when the season started. Yeah, we had some growing pains to go through early, but we got through those. We’re jelling still, and we’ve got a ways to go.”

McCollum isn’t a big kid at 5-foot-10, but can shoot the crap out of the basketball, is quick and incredibly smart as a player, which you’d expect from a coach’s kid. McCollum played mostly sub-varsity hoops last season at Class 4A Waukee Northwest and decided Solon was where he wanted to go this season.

The district is where his parents bought a house. He considered the Iowa City Regina system, where his younger sister goes, but said he felt more comfortable with his teammates at Solon.

“When I came to an open gym, just a bunch of good guys,” McCollum said. “I wasn’t really worried about on the court, because we’re going to be good either way. But off the court, I can definitely say I made friends through that open gym. That was the most important thing.”

McCollum came into this game averaging 22.8 points per game and is the vocal point offensively of everything Solon does. But he does need help and got some down the stretch of this game, one in which Marion (6-4) led by six at halftime.

Things were tied, when junior forward Simon Einwalter made an inside hoop to put Solon up 58-56 with about two minutes to go. Up for good, as Marion missed a couple of free throws, a couple of field-goal attempts and also had a turnover.

McCollum finished with a team-high 18 points, though Grant Gordon was “the guy” in the second half for the Spartans. He finished with 17 points, 12 in the final two quarters.

“It came in the flow of the offense,” Gordon said. “We talked about at halftime how we had to move the ball side to side more, and we’ve got to drive the ball to the middle more. When they came out of the zone, we moved the ball a lot more, opening up the middle drive.”

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“That’s what it’s going to take,” Galpin said. “To help Tate out, we need more balanced scoring. He has carried a big load. Everyone has played well together, but we have to have guys step up and give us more scoring to help him. Because he’s going to see more attention.”

Marion lost its first three games this season, then got on a six-game heater that included an upset of top-10 ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier over the weekend. Guard Christian Stacey, a move-in himself from WACO, led the Wolves with 23 points, though only five came in the second half.

Forward Tait Rahe sat a lot with foul trouble and then fouled out late, which was a significant factor. Starting forward Tyler Farber missed the game with injury.

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“I mean, of course it’s disappointing to lose,” said Marion Coach Pete Messerli. “We come into every game thinking we have a good chance of winning. Full respect to Solon, of course. They are really good, a lot of great pieces. We played as hard as we possibly could. I thought it was a great high school basketball game. It just stinks being on the back side, the losing side of it.

“I think they probably executed in the latter stretches of the fourth quarter, through no fault of our own. We gave it our best effort tonight, but just fell short. We’ll learn from it. Maybe we had to learn this to win some others later in the season.”

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AT MARION

SOLON (62): Kaden Hoeper 1-1 0-0 2, Tanner Heims 0-1 2-4 2, Grant Gordon 6-8 2-2 17m Maddox Kelley 1-2 1-2 3, Tate McCollum 4-12 9-11 18, Ethan Ulch 2-4 0-0 5, Simon Einwalter 5-9 3-4 13, Luke Merrick 1-4 0-0 2, Owen Bock 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-41 17-23 62.

MARION (56): Evan Kinney 1-5 2-2 4, Tait Rahe 2-4 4-4 8, Brooks Coates 3-4 5-9 11, Christian Stacey 8-23 2-3 23, Jaryn Griffith 2-8 0-0 5, Calvin Andresen 0-2 0-0 0, Landon Tilkes 2-5 0-0 5, Abram Booms 0-1 0-0 0, Jake Skogman 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 13-18 56.

Halftime - Marion 34, Solon 28. 3-point goals - Solon 6-16 (Gordon 3-5, McCollum 2-8, Ulch 1-1, Einwalter 0-1, Merrick 0-1), Marion 7-23 (Rahe 0-1, Kinney 0-1, Stacey 5-13, Griffith 1-4, Andresen 0-1, Tilkes 1-2, Booms 0-1). Rebounds - Solon 33 (Gordon 7), Marion 25 (Coates 6). Total fouls - Solon 16, Marion 18. Fouled out - Rahe. Turnovers - Solon 18, Marion 13.

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