Marquette Explorers at Roxana Shells Girls Basketball
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ROXANA – The Roxana Shells trailed for 31 minutes and 49 seconds Thursday night while hosting the Marquette Catholic Explorers.
But after being down by as many as 11 points, Roxana clawed its way back into the game throughout the second half, before taking it’s one and only lead with 11 seconds remaining.
The Shells trailed 27-23 heading into the fourth quarter. They’d open the final frame on an 8-4 run. Baskets from Leah Newton and Tatum Shaw tied the game up at 31-31, forcing Marquette into a timeout with 34 seconds left.
Marquette turned the ball over, and Daisy Daugherty became the night’s hero with her pull-up jumper to give her team the lead, eventually becoming the final score, 33-31.
“I think a lot of it has to do with our kids’ heart,” Roxana head coach Mike Arbuthnot said. “We never quit; we held them to two field goals in the second half. It was one of those types of ballgames that if it got close, I felt like our kids just have the experience, and the will, and the desire to get over the hump.”
And they did.
It was Daugherty’s only field goal of the game. The Shells were led by Ava Cherry who scored 14 points on four threes and a pair of free throws. Daugherty and Shaw both finished with five points, Newton had four, and Kylee Slayden had three.
The Explorers started the game on a 6-0 run thanks to three straight baskets from Kayln St. Peters, Laila Davis, and Delaney Ortman.
Roxana had to overcome a slow offensive start to the game, scoring its opening points with 21 seconds left thanks to two foul shots from Daugherty. Another basket from Slayden in the dying seconds made it 6-4 Marquette after the first quarter.
Ortman and Cherry swapped threes to open the second with Cherry making another triple to tie the game at 11-11.
Marquette then snapped off on an 11-point run. Allie Weiner scored her first basket of the game followed by a basket and one from Ortman to force Roxana into a timeout with 3:30 left in the half.
Out of the break, Weiner swished back-to-back threes to give the Explorers their largest lead of the night at 22-11. Roxana’s Hayley Schlemer scored to make it 22-13 at the half.
Marquette widened the lead to 10 points again midway through the third quarter at 27-17, but Cherry and Shaw made back-to-back treys to make it 27-23 after three. Roxana didn’t allow an Explorers field goal during the third quarter, outscoring them 10-5.
“I really think the big deal was our defensive effort,” Arbuthnot said. “I thought the kids really responded well to the changing defenses, and also, we just got the loose balls in the second half.”
“We kind of got complacent, and we didn’t score,” Marquette head coach Whitney Sykes-Rogers said. “If we put in layups, the game’s over. We had turnovers toward the end, but we shouldn’t have been in that situation if we converted in the third quarter. We had a chance to extend the lead, and we just missed shots.”
Marquette was outscored 20-9 in the second half. It suffers it’s third straight loss falling to 13-7. The Explorers were led by Weiner with 13 points. Ortman had eight, Davis had six, and St. Peters had four on a night where they shot a combined 33 percent from the field and had 15 turnovers.
“We kind of got panicked, threw some silly passes, that really were unforced,” Sykes-Rogers said. “That’s been our issue all year, offensive inconsistencies. We have to overcome it somehow. If we just put up double digits in the second half, we win the game. It’s hard, but we’ve got to move on.”
The Shells have now won three of their last four and improved to 11-11 on the season.
Both teams will be back in action on Saturday, weather permitting, in the first round of the 51st Annual Lady Hawk Invitational at Carrollton High School.
Marquette earned an eight seed in the tournament and will take on ninth-seeded Beardstown (12-13) at 10:30 a.m. Roxana was given the 11 seed and plays sixth-seeded Winchester West Central (16-7) at 6:30 p.m.
