EDWARDSVILLE - Marquette Catholic's boys' basketball team started out strong. then pulled away in the second half after Galesburg came back to tie the game early in the half to take a 58-51 win in the Explorers' third game of the Edwardsville High NCAA Live Showcase event Saturday afternoon at Liberty Middle School.
Marquette was able to use its strengths to its advantage to get the win over the Silver Streaks and got very good performances up and down its lineup to take the win in the Explorers' first game of the showcase. Marquette was scheduled to play McCluer North on Saturday evening, then play on Sunday against Mascoutah.
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"I feel great," said Explorers' coach Cody Best. "The team looks like they felt great today. We played to our advantage today and spaced the floor and opened up the driving lanes for our guys and defensively, that set the tone for us right there. We had a couple of hiccups, but we fixed it and were very, very impressed overall for today's game."
When Galesburg was able to tie the game early in the second half, Marquette went on a run to pull away and it's definitely a very good sign ahead for the Explorers.
"Yeah, they did tie it up," Best said. "We've got five seniors on this team and they're one of those teams where they know. I've got all the faith in the world that they're going to make adjustments on their own, really. But they definitely stuck together there towards the end of that and they battled through the last minutes of it."
Things overall are definitely looking very good for Marquette as the summer season continues and Best is very pleased with his team's efforts.
A three-and-a-breakaway lay-in started the Explorers right by going to a 5-0 lead in the opening seconds. which they soon expanded to 15-4. A basket and a three by Galesburg cut the lead to 15-9, but Marquette responded with a 6-2 run to expand the advantage to 21-11. The Silver Streaks later were able to cut the lead down to 27-23, then outscored Marquette 3-2 to bring the halftime score to 29-26 in favor of the Explorers.
Galesburg tied things up almost immediately after the start of the second half at 29-29 and the lead then changed hands a few times before Marquette went on a run to take a 46-37 lead later on in the half. Galesburg fought back to go on a 9-0 run to tie the game 46-46 and from there, the Explorers took control and outscored the Silver Streaks 12-5 to take their 58-51 win.
It was a very good showing for the Explorers and Best is feeling very confident about his side's chances when the regular season gets going in November.
"I'm looking forward to it," Best said with a smile and laugh. "I wouldn't want it any other way."Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
