ALTON - The Marquette Explorers have played as well as any other area girls' basketball teams in the area at the moment, their only blemish at the Carrollton Tournament was a tough loss to a very good Calhoun team. However, the Explorers closed their home schedule on Thursday evening with a 37-18 victory over Maryville.
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A somewhat sluggish opening half did see the Marquette girls jump out to double up the visitors from Maryville 16-8 after a quarter, and took a 22-8 lead into halftime. Five Explorers found the basket, including team leading scorer Kel’c Robinson and Delaney Ortman connecting from beyond the arc
Junior Explorer Allie Weiner led the scoring with eight points on the night, with Whitney Sykes-Rogers rotating the squad down the stretch. No matter who came into the game, ball movement was the key to Marquette’s 37-18 victory.
“We’re missing a couple of kids because of sickness, but it was nice to rotate those kids in the game and get them game exposure.," she said. "They’re mainly freshmen and sophomores. They’re going to be our future, and we want to get them decent minutes. They play the majority of our fourth quarters, if you have to put them in for 30 seconds in a key spot they can hold their own.
The visiting Lions put together some offense late, but were too far behind thanks to a stingy performance by the Marquette defense.
Maryville Christian was led by junior Lydia Hale with six points, and sophomore Brooklyn Thien knocked in five points, including Maryville’s only connection from three-point land.
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