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EDWARDSVILLE – A young Marquette Catholic boys basketball team found themselves tied with St. Louis College Prep at 32-32 after three quarters, but outscored the Tigers in final quarter 17-4 to take a 49-36 win over the Tigers in the quarterfinals of the 38th Metro-East Lutheran Turkey Tip-Off Tournament Tuesday evening at Hooks Gymnasium.
The Explorers, now 2-0 on the young season, lost a 12-point lead in the third quarter before rallying to advance to Friday night’s semifinals.
Some of the returning players are being asked to take on different roles on the team, but the competitiveness of the players is still a key to their success.
“And that’s been a big, big thing for us,” said Explorers coach Steve Medford, “is really trying to get (Chris) Hartrich to think score before pass; he’s always been that way. You know, we’re going to rely on those guys to make some shots, guys that we’re allowing them to do a lot of things for us. And hopefully, they step up to that challenge, and I think that they will. They want to win, they really want to compete, and they know what it’s like to play to play for regionals and sectionals, and be in all that in situations. So I think these guys, they want to win as bad as anyone else, but I’ve always said this: When you hate to lose more than you love to win, you’re going to have a good basketball team, and I think we’ve got some guys who really hate losing, so I think we’ll be alright.”
And the team is dedicated to improving every day and getting better as the season goes on.
“I think this group, it’s not about records as it is, much as it is about just trying to get them better as the year goes on,” Medford said. “We’ve got really two guys that’s got varsity experience, and everybody outside of that, it’s new to them. But I think this group will continually get better as the year goes because there’s a lot of inexperience there. But I do believe that we can win regionals, we can go to sectionals, we can compete. And I think that’s the ultimate goal, is just continually getting better, and see if you have a chance, at the end of the year, to be playing your best basketball.
The Explorers used an 11-man player rotation in their win on Monday night and expect to use a nine- to- 10-man lineup for most of the season.
“We had 11 the other night, and I think I can go nine or ten deep, really,” Medford said. “Just tonight, I kind of wanted to shorten it a little bit and give a couple of guys another chance. Coach Reiger (a former coach) used to say ‘if you’re deep when you’re small, you ain’t any good,'” Medford said with a laugh. “So we got to figure out who can play. That’s been a real issue. We’ve got a lot of guys who are just kind of OK, so it’s just a matter of who’s gonna get it done for us, and I think we’re going to try some different guys every night.”
After conceding the first basket of the game, Marquette jumped out to an early 5-2 lead on a three by Iggy McGee and a drive-by Hartrich. The Explorers lengthened their lead to 10-4 later in the period, but a free throw from Micah Johnson and a basket by Tevon Wiley cut the lead to 10-7 at the end of the quarter. As the second quarter began, a pair of Cortez Harris free throws and a Nate Hall score extended the lead to 14-7. It became 16-10 later on thanks to a Harris bucket sandwiched around three Tiger free throws. The Explorers ended the first half on a 10-6 run, getting a basket from Hall, free throws from McGee and Brett Terry and a basket from Hartrich after getting a great pass to make it 26-16 Marquette at halftime.
Hartrich hit a three from up top to start the second half, and a Nick Hemann free throw after a basket from Dakari Gray made it 30-18 for the Explorers. The Tigers then went on a 12-0 run to draw level, getting baskets from Johnson, a basket and free throw by Kerryn Robinson, and baskets from Gray and Robinson. The Tigers tied it up on a three from Kalind Anderson from the side, and two free throws from Hartrich and a basket before the buzzer by Johnson left the score tied at 32-32 at three-quarter time.
The two teams traded baskets to start the fourth, and a Gray basket from underneath gave SCP a 36-34 lead. That would be the last lead for the Tigers, as the Explorers scored the final 15 points, starting with a basket from Hall, with a free throw from Nick Hemann giving Marquette a 37-36 lead, one they would never relinquish. During the final 5:09, three SCP players – Marsean Gleghorn, Gary Waugh, and Demarious Haywood – all fouled out. The Explorers scored eight of their final points from the free throw line, including both ends of two one-and-ones, to pull away for the final 49-36 score.
It was definitely a hard-fought game throughout by both teams, and Medford saluted the Tigers.
“Absolutely,” Medford said. “They gave us a run for our money, they’re athletic, they give some problems because of their defense, and I’m just happy we came out of here and won.”
The Explorers advance to Friday night’s semifinals against Odin, a 71-58 winner over Centralia Christ Our Rock in the late game, and Medford is looking forward to the challenge.
“It just a challenge; it’s focusing on us right now,” Medford said. “You get the winner against these two guys right here, and hopefully, we can put it together a little bit better than what we did. We overcame a little bit there, it was 30-18, and it was a 30-30 game, and all of a sudden, we’ve got a basketball game. Hopefully, we don’t put ourselves in that situation again.”
And again, it’s all about the team getting better every day as the season progresses.
“It’s just really about trying to get better every game with these guys,” Medford said, “because we’ve got a lot of youth, and a lot of guys with a lot of inexperience.”Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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