EDWARDSVILLE - Defending tournament champions Marquette Catholic, led by Spencer Cox's 15 points, hit 16 three-point shots and used their pressure defense to defeat East Alton-Wood River 73-20 in the first round of the Metro-East Lutheran Thanksgiving Tip-Off tournament Tuesday evening at Hooks Gym.

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The Explorers jumped out to a 22-4 lead after the first quarter, scoring 17 of the game's first 18 points before the Oilers hit their first field goal, a three from Ryan Dawson, and led at halftime 42-7. The aggressive defense is a Marquette trademark and any concerns that Explorer head coach Steve Medford had were quickly diminished.

"You know, I'll tell you what, I was a little concerned," Medford said, "because defensively, I didn't know how we would be. I know our pressure was still really good, and that's been kind of a staple of our program for the last several years and hopefully, it's just kind of carried over. So if we can keep guys playing aggressively defensively, we're going to be pretty good."

The 16 threes were a result of hard work that the Marquette players put in shooting during the summer season, and it paid off handsomely against EAWR.

"Obviously, we shot the ball extremely well," Medford said. "I think we were 16-of-29 from three, and some guys made some shots. But a lot of our guys have put in some extra work into shooting the ball, and hopefully, it'll keep carrying over."

Turnovers played a big part, as is typical of early-season games, and the Explorers' defense will help them create an identity for the 2019-20 season.

"I think it's early right now," Medford said. "I think, right now, our guards are really our strength, as the pressure on the basketball, creating a little bit of havoc, and making kids uncomfortable. I think that's always been a part of our program. I think that's really, right now, where we're at. Offensively, the half-court, over the next couple of games, we're going to see a little bit more of what we are, because there's still a lot of question marks there. But we do have some really good pieces back from last year, and we've got some athletic ability, along with some really good guard play, and kids who can shoot the basketball. So it's always fun. We'll get a lot better; we don't execute real well right now, and it's early in the season; a lot of people aren't executing real well, but all you expect out of your kids is the two controllables, your attitude and your effort.

"I thought our effort was, for the most part, really good," Medford also said. "It may have been dumb at times, but it was still good," he said with a laugh.

And that effort is something that will help carry the Explorers a long way this coming season.

"I always tell kids that it is about effort," Medford said. "I can live with a lot of things, and I can live with turnovers, I can live with some missed shots, I can live with some missed assignments that were just bad communication, but I can't live with a lack of effort. And our guys do give us that, and if we can continue to get that kind of energy out of our guys, it makes a lot of teams uncomfortable. And it's a lot of fun to coach, especially when the kids are giving that kind of effort."

The game plan for the Oilers was to let Marquette shoot the ball, thinking it might be a weakness.

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"Well, our game plan was let them shoot a little bit," said first-year EAWR coach Steve Flowers. "And they shot the living crap out of the three-ball. I haven't checked over the numbers, but I would imagine it was close to 15 threes. We thought that might be their weakness, but obviously, they shot the ball a lot this summer. So us coaches, we take a little bit of that blame for that, definitely, And you know that Marquette's going to play tough defense, and they, once again, are a stifling defensive team, and they put the clamps on us. They're a good team."

Flowers gave credit to his team for their effort, as the Oilers are the proverbial work in progress, and are learning how the coach wants them to play.

"These kids are playing hard," Flowers said. "They're learning how hard we want them to play, and they're getting there. We see Marquette at the end of the year, and I expect that to be a totally different basketball game for us. These guys, they're learning, they're learning, and we're going to get there."

And as the season progresses, Flowers expects one big thing from his team.

"Well, we're expecting to win," Flowers said. "We're not going to go into these games looking for moral victories. We expect to win. Hopefully, we can come out of here with the consolation championship. Even two wins, if we come out with two wins, I don't think they've won two games here in several years, so, you know, we're just looking to build off every game, and we're going to build off this, we're going to break down this film, and show these kids where they're missing, and let us coaches see what we need to fix."

It was Kendall Lavender, Iggy McGee and Brett Terry who scored baskets early on for the Explorers as they build an early 11-1 lead, then both McGee and Lavender hit back-to-back threes to make it 17-1 before Dawson hit his three for the first Oiler basket. Lavender hit another three and Owen Williams scored on a driving lay-in to make it 22-4 for Marquette at the end of the first quarter. The Explorers started the second quarter on a 10-3 run, using back-to-back threes from Cox and another three from McGee to help the Explorers to a 32-7 lead. Marquette then scored the last 10 points of the half with Davin Thompson hitting on a pair of threes to help Marquette take a 42-7 lead at halftime.

The Explorers scored the first 10 points of the second half before pair of baskets from Evan Merritt made the score 52-11. A pair of threes from Cox and Thompson, along with another basket from Thompson, put the score at 60-11, with Marquette extending the lead to 61-13 after three quarters, forcing a fourth-quarter running clock. The teams exchanged points to start the quarter, but then the Explorers then finished the game on a 10-5 run to take the 73-20 win.

Thompson had 14 points for Marquette, with McGee adding 10 to help lead the Explorers, Williams added nine points, while Cortez Harris had eight and both Lavender and Terry had seven each. Merritt led the Oilers with seven points, while Dawson, Ahmad Allen and Carson Reef had three points each.

The Oilers start off the season 0-1, and will play Valmeyer, who lost to Roxana 73-53 in their first-round game, Wednesday evening at 6:30 in the auxiliary gym in the consolation quarterfinals. Although Flowers was hired shortly before the start of the season, he looks forward to working with his players and helping them become the best they can be.

"Yeah, it's a little hard," Flowers said. "We had two weeks to kind of get with these kids; I got hired at the start of October, so we've got two weeks to really work with them. We're going to get there; I know by Christmastime, I think we'll have everything installed that we want to have, and hopefully, we'll ready to play big-time basketball then."

The Explorers are now 1-0, and will play the Shells in the quarterfinals on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Hooks Gym. Coming off a 30-4 season a year ago, Medford knows that the expectations are high, and feels that his team is ready to accept the challenges ahead.

"You know, that always remains to be seen," Medford said. "I always try to tell every group that we have before the season starts is that that Marquette across your chest doesn't mean that you're here to win 25, 30 games, you've got to earn it. Everything's earned, and that starts with our attitude, and I think they've handled it well so far. I don't think they put a lot of pressure on themselves. Every group thinks they're going to be better than last year. That's good. Like, our kids come out and 'hey Coach, we'll be better this year than we were last year.' I like that, because it means they've got confidence in their game, they've got confidence in the program, and hopefully, we'll just see what happens."

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