EDWARDSVILLE – Marquette Catholic senior forward Nick Hemann was named the Most Valuable Player of the 38th Metro-East Lutheran Turkey Tip-Off tournament following the Explorers’ 50-37 win over the host Knights at Thomas Hooks Gymnasium Saturday night.
With Marquette being a young and inexperienced team, starting the season 4-0 is a big boost for the team.
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“Yeah, it’s really going to help us throughout the rest of the season,” Hemann said following the game, “especially because we’re young. We got off to a really good start, and it’s a just a really big boost of confidence for us. We didn’t have much experience, and to be able to come in here and win this tournament is a big step for us.”
Hemann credited the team’s defense with winning the game and the crown.
“Defense,’ Hemann said. “That’s always a key to every single game is defense, and we executed perfectly today. We made it hard for their bigs to catch, made it hard for their guards to throw to the post, which led to the bigs getting in foul trouble, which led to two of them fouling out, which helped us win.”
Being able to take the Knights’ top post players, DaMonte Bean and A.J. Smith, was a key in the Explorers’ win.
“Yeah, it really was,” Hemann said. “If really forced them to put more smaller players in, and allowed us to play big, and we were able to get stuff to the post. And we had Chris (Hartrich, who had 16 points), who was driving and getting them in foul trouble, too, making big shots, and it was helping us out overall.”
Hemann tossed in 12 points to go with Hartrich's 16 points to lead the Explorers against MELHS. The Explorers start the season at 4-0, which very much bodes well for the team down the road.
“Yeah, it’s a great building step for us,” Hemann said. “Our motto is to get better every day. Every practice, we have to look to get better. If we have someone out-efforting us that game, then we’re going to lose. We have to out-effort everybody, no matter what. And that’s going to be our biggest key for this year.”
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