No matter how you gauge it, last Friday night's Marion-Valley View basketball game at Fidelity Bank Arena boasted a postseason atmosphere. One of the larger crowds of the season, highlighted by a boisterous Marion student section clad in neon shirts and face paint, greeting the 5A East rivals. The winner of the contest would earn the No. 2 playoff seed from the 5A East as the league's conference runner-up. Marion and Valley View punched and counterpunched for four regulation periods, and two overtime frames, with the Patriots outlasting the Blazers 62-52 in double overtime. The Patriots earned the coveted second playoff seed and will play Little Rock Parkview (15-14 overall, 9-5 5A Central) at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday night in the opening round of this season's Class 5A state basketball tournament in Searcy. The Parkview Patriots are the No. 3 seed from the 5A Central. Marion pulled away from Valley View by limiting the Blazers to just two free throws in the second overtime period and harassing the visitors into missing all five field goals in that frame. "Man, I'm just proud of all the guys on our team right now," said first-year Marion coach Emmanuel Wade, who guided Marianna to the 2021 state title in his previous head-coaching stop. "We had a bunch of guys step up and do what needed to be done, no matter what that was. I think eight or nine guys made at least one huge play tonight." Marion (19-4 overall, 12-2 5A East) rode a team-high 18 points and seven assists from junior guard Lyndell Buckingham, while senior forward Jalen White scored 16 points with 17 rebounds, and junior Mikell Lewis scored 17 points with nine caroms. Valley View fell to 19-10 overall and 11-3 in the 5A East despite getting 20 points from Gavin Ellis, 13 from Oliver Barr, and eight from Laird Cullen. Marion scored the first three points of the second overtime stanza when senior guard Ronnie Townsend, Jr. canned a jump shot from the corner, and White split a pair of free throws on the next Marion possession. Ellis split a pair of his own charities with 2:49 left in the second overtime when White scored in the paint before Buckingham came up with a steal in the Valley View backcourt and turned it into offense when he threw down a slam dunk for a 57-51 advantage with 1:57 remaining. A David Brewer three-pointer pushed the Pats in front 60-51 with 1:09 left in the game, and Lewis and White combined to make two of four free throws down the stretch to give Marion the appropriate cushion. "We played really tough in the overtime," said Wade. "We had guys in foul trouble all night, but we didn't let it deter us. We kept pushing and made play after play." Marion hit Valley View with an 8-0 run in the middle of the first quarter, starting when Brewer hit a three-pointer, Buckingham came up with a steal and layup, and White added an exclamation point on the spurt when he converted a three-point play with 2:10 left for an 8-3 lead, and Marion enjoyed an 8-5 advantage after a quarter. A Lewis three-pointer gave Marion a 13-7 lead with 6:22 left in the second, but the Blazers pushed back when Josh Burnett hit a layup, followed by three-pointers from Cullen and Barr for a 15-13 lead, and the Blazers took an 18-17 lead to the halftime lockers. Another Lewis triple gave Marion a 30-27 lead with 1:52 left in the third, and he turned a Buckingham pass into a layup with 30.4 seconds left that was good for a 32-28 Patriot lead after three quarters. Valley View got back into it in the fourth quarter when Ellis scored 11 points in the frame, and the Blazer lead was 40-36 following a Burnett free throw with 3:37 remaining. From there, White scored three points, and Brewer gave Marion a 42-41 lead on a stickback with 15.4 seconds remaining. Barr split a pair of free throws to force overtime. The lead changed hands seven times in the first overtime, including with 46.1 seconds left after Ellis's second three-pointer of the frame. Lewis got into the paint and finished a layup to tie the game at 50 with 29.1 seconds left to force a second extra period. WHAT'S NEXT? Marion opens its run at the Class 5A state tournament at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday evening against Little Rock Parkview at Searcy's Lion Arena. Every Marion basketball game at the state tournament will be broadcast live on MarionPatriots.com and on the Marion Patriots Activities Network's YouTube channel. CLASS 5A STATE TOURNAMENT FIRST-ROUND GAMES Benton-Mountain Home, 2:30 p.m., Feb. 27 Maumelle-Valley View, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 28 Alma-White Hall, 5:30 p.m., Feb. 27 MARION-LR Parkview 8:30 p.m., Feb. 28 Nettleton-Jacksonville 8:30 p.m., Feb. 27 Van Buren-Pine Bluff 2:30 p.m., Feb. 29 Vilonia-W. Memphis 2:30 p.m., Feb. 28 Lake Hamilton-Russellville 5:30 p.m., Feb. 29