BETHALTO – Backyard rivalry games can get a bit intense at times.
Case in point: Tuesday night's clash between Marquette Catholic and Civic Memorial at CM's gym.
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Just past the midway point of the third quarter, a disputed call led to two technical fouls being called on Explorer coach Steve Medford, leading to his ejection. Not long afterwards, another technical was called on the Explorer bench.
By then, the Eagles had built as much as a 14-point lead, but a determined Marquette battled back and managed to come to as close as two points in the final seconds of regulation, but CM managed to hold off the Explorers to take a 57-54 win.
The win put the Eagles at 3-2 on the year, while the Explorers fell to 4-1 on the season.
“I deserved the first one,” Medford said of his technicals. “I didn't think I deserved the second one; I told the kids that too. We just move on from this and hopefully we get better as a team.
“I'll give a lot of credit to CM and coach (Doug) Carey; they speed you up and make you play at a different level and different pace. We couldn't get into our offense; we've got a young team that hasn't faced this type of stuff and we didn't do a good job of gathering ourselves and getting ourselves back into our offense.”
The Eagles couldn't capitalize on the Marquette technicals; of the six free throws awarded following the T's, CM only converted three of them. “We didn't make it good for us,” Carey said of the missed free throws. “We got two points out of the first two technicals – 2-for-4 – and missed the basket, and the last one, we were 1-for-2; we didn't capitalize on it at all.”
CM's defensive pressure certainly helped the Eagles build their lead into the third term; they trailed 12-9 at quarter time, but built up a lead that got to 27-21 at the half. “We can guard a little bit when we want to,” Carey said. “I think we caused a lot of problems; it's not so much the turnovers, it's the deflections occasionally and just wearing them down; by the end of the fourth quarter, I think that happened.”
Marquette refused to go away, rallying behind the shooting of sophomore Isaiah Ervin, who hit some key shots down the stretch – including an NBA-range three-pointer – to bring the Explorers close. “We always talk about being tough,” Medford said. “We want our guys to be a little bit tougher and just a tough group of kids. We're young – we've got three sophomores, three juniors and two seniors who are playing. We're a young team and some guys have not experienced this yet.
“We can do better as a staff, do better as a team and we will; it's just a matter of getting some time with these kids and keep practicing, keep working with them and we'll get better.”
Ervin's shooting that got the Explorers back in it got Carey's attention. “With about 45 seconds on the clock, I told the coaches, 'I think we might be better off if we just foul him',” Carey said. “He was going to score regardless; it was just a matter if it was going to be a two or a three. He was incredible down the stretch; he's going to be really good in a couple of years.”
A Caden Clark free throw with 5.6 seconds to go on a double bonus proved to be enough for the Eagles, giving them the final 57-54 lead. A foul with 2.9 seconds to go sent the Explorers' Sammy Green to the line, but he missed the front end of a one-and-one and Marquette couldn't get a final shot off to force overtime.
Jaquan Adams led the Eagles with 13 points on the night; Clark, Jaxsen Helmkamp and Geoffrey Withers each had seven points. Jake Hall led Marquette with 18 points, with Ervin adding 15 and Green nine.
The Explorers open their Prairie State Conference slate at Nokomis Friday night, while the Eagles travel to Highland Dec. 6 for their Mississippi Valley Conference opener.
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