EDWARDSVILLE - Marquette Catholic used strong defense to shut down Metro-East Lutheran's offense, outscoring the Knights 25-6, and used a 10-0 run starting at the end of the third quarter, going into the start of the fourth, to win their semifinal match-up 39-25 in the second semifinal of the 39th annual Thanksgiving Turkey Tip-Off Tournament Friday night at Hooks Gym.
The Explorers had some problems offensively themselves, but were able to play well defensively to advance to their fourth consecutive final.
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"We've just struggled the last two games that we've had, just shooting the basketball a little bit," Marquette coach Steve Medford said, "and you know, we were just real passive in the first half. We talked about it in the walk-through, we talked about how we've got to get some penetration, and really put some pressure on their defense, and we just didn't do it. Then when shots don't fall, the energy happens to go down a little bit, but I'm proud of my guys. At least they fought back and they did what they were supposed to do in the second half. I think it was, was it, 25-6 in the second half. So our guys did battle, and I'm proud of them for that."
Marquette prides itself on strong defense, and when the shooting grew cold in the second half, the Explorers' defense pulled them through.
"You know, our defense has been our staple for the last several years," Medford said. "As long as you continue to defend people, you always give yourself a chance. You just kind of felt like, even if it was 19-11 at halftime, we hadn't gotten anything going, but our defense just kind of kept us in the game a little bit, so hopefully, that's kind of been a staple, and you always give yourself a chance, at least, to stay in the game. If you come out real flat defensively and offensively, that sometimes, you don't give yourself a chance. I thought we did a good job of that."
Medford did send a message to his players about playing better defensively during the halftime break.
"You know, eventually, you've got to come to terms with your kids to understand it's their team, it's not my team," Medford said. "And I think it was more about just a little cold shoulder in the second half, second half. I think our guys, they got the message. It was just 'Hey, this is not the type of basketball that's going to win a bunch of basketball games.' If we come out and do that tomorrow night (in the final against St. Louis Lift For Life Academy), we'll be down 40 points in the second half."
Brett Terry led the Explorers, and all scorers, with 22 points, and was an active force for Marquette all night.
"Brett was awesome. Brett was great," Medford said. "He was active. When Brett Terry's active, we're a lot better basketball team, and Brett was very active. That was the first thing I mentioned when I went in there, I congratulated them on how well he played, and I thought he did a great job."
The Explorers also did a good job of stopping A.J. Smith, who was held to eight points before coming out of the game with an injury in the second half.
"I thought our guys did a good job," Medford said. "We also ran another guy at him at times. He's a heck of a basketball player, and we really wanted to make sure we got the ball out of his hands, because he's a good basketball player. Our guys kind of rise up to those challenges, Brett Terry and Spencer (Cox), they do a great job defending; a lot of our guys do that. They really rise up to those types of situations."
The Knights didn't have one of their better games on the evening, and Metro-East head coach Anthony Smith thought that his team didn't play well fundamentally.
"It's got to be a game of fundamentals," Smith said. "It has to be a team effort. We have to be fundamentally sound every night, and we have to understand that it's what we're trying to do."
Metro-East did play hard throughout the entire game, but Smith emphasized that there's a difference in playing hard and playing with production.
"They always play hard," Smith said, "but there's a difference between playing hard and playing productive."
Smith also gave credit to the Explorers for their second-half effort.
"We didn't play well in the first half either," Smith said, "but they put things together in the second half and won the game."
Both the Explorer and Knight defenses dominated the first few minutes of the game, in which neither team was able to score for the first 4:25 until Cortez Harris scored on a drive to the hoop for the first points of the game. The Knights got their first basket with 2:52 left in the period when Chris Chipman scored to tie the game up at 2-2, then took the lead seconds later on a basket by Elliot Wilson. Terry tied things up later on, but Smith scored on the inside to make it 6-4 for the Knights as the opening quarter ended.
Smith opened the second quarter with a three to extend the Knights lead to 9-4, but Marquette got three baskets in a row from Terry to take a 10-9 lead. Another Wilson basket gave the Knights the lead back, and a free throw from Brendan Steinmeyer and a basket off a spin move from Wilson extended the lead to 14-10. The Knights then outscored the Explorers from the free-throw line 5-1 the rest of the half to take a 19-11 lead into the locker rooms after the first half.
At the start of the second half, Harris made a great adjustment to his shot to score, then Iggy McGee got a great pass inside to score and cut the Metro-East lead to 19-15. Smith then scored inside to put the Knights' lead back to six at 21-15, but as things turned out, it would be the only basket of the second half for Metro-East. Terry hit a long three to cut the lead to 21-18, then Terry tied the game at 21-21 by hitting three of four free throws, and Cox hit a three before the buzzer to give the Explorers a 24-21 lead after three.
Terry started the final quarter with a driving basket to make it 26-21, then Cox hit on a three to make it 29-21, and Marquette kept the ball after a foul was called against the Knights. Kendall Lavender hit both ends of a one-and-one to give Marquette a 31-21 lead, and from there, the Explorers outscored the Knights 8-4, with all the Metro-East points coming from free throws by Chipman and Cam Gusewelle. Terry scored twice, and McGee also scored to make the final 39-25.
Besides Terry, Cox scored six points, McGee five and Harris four for Marquette, while Wilson led the Knights with nine points, and Chipman had four.
The Explorers are now 3-0 and will play Lift For Life, who won the first semifinal over Breese Mater Dei Catholic 63-62 on a basket with six seconds left in regulation, in the final Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Hooks Gym. Medford knows that the defense will have to rise up again against a very good Hawks' team in order to win their fourth straight championship.
"There's an old saying, you can't score, you can't win," Medford said "but you know, obviously, you don't expect them (Metro-East) to be completely shut down like that. We do have a defense. Our defense is kind of built for that, they expect to try to shut teams down, shut people down, so hopefully, we can keep doing that, because I think that's how we're going to win some games this year."
Metro-East will play against Mater Dei in the third and fourth place game at 5:30 p.m., also at Hooks Gym, and Smith feels that his team will need to play smarter to have a chance against Mater Dei.
"We've just got to be smart," Smith said. "Mater Dei's a good team, they're going to do the same thing as Marquette. We've just got to be smart."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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