Boys basketball: No. 1 Serena, No. 2 Lexington advance to play for the Marquette Christmas Tournament title

OTTAWA – For the third consecutive time and eighth time in 14 events, the top two seeds of the Marquette Christmas Tournament reached the championship game.

In the first semifinal at Bader Gymnasium on Thursday, No. 2-seed Lexington used a strong start to the fourth quarter to get past previously unbeaten and No. 3-seeded Earlville 67-52. Then in the second semifinal, top-seeded and unbeaten Serena exploded in the second quarter and topped No. 5-seeded Flanagan-Cornell 60-41.

The Red Raiders and Falcons will play for third place at 6:30 p.m. Friday, followed at 8 p.m. by the Huskers taking on the Minutemen.

Serena, which has appeared in every tournament, has reached the title game once before, winning the title in 2016. Lexington, which is part of the field for the fifth time, will play in its first championship game.

Editor’s note: Coverage of Friday night’s championship game, which concluded after our print deadline, as well as the rest of the tournament’s place games can be found online at www.shawlocal.com/illinois-valley/ .

Serena 60, Flanagan-Cornell 41

The Huskers (14-0) led 13-7 after the opening eight minutes, then exploded for a game-changing 26-11 second-quarter advantage to hold a 39-18 margin at halftime.

Serena finished the game hitting 46% (23 of 50) from the field, including 64% (9 of 14) from the 3-point line, had a slight lead on the boards (37-33), while each side committed 14 turnovers. Flanagan-Cornell ended shooting 30% (17 of 57) from the floor, including 13% (3 of 24) from beyond the arc.

Tanner Faivre led Serena with 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Hunter Staton had 12 points and five rebounds, while Carson Baker posted 11 points, eight rebounds, two assists and four steals.

“I don’t think Flanagan-Cornell shot the ball as well as they would have anticipated tonight, but I feel like our defense had a little something to do with that,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “I think we showed again tonight, when we can get going, when we can get things clicking, this is how streaky this team can be. We are fortunate in that we have four guys that shoot the lights out on any given night and four guys that can take the scoring lead any given night.

“The biggest key so far this season is playing consistently. I really thought for much of the game tonight we played very steady on offense and were pretty good on the defensive end as well.”

Kesler Collins paced the Falcons (11-4) with 15 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots. Connor Reed added 10 points and Brennan Edens six.

“You have to give credit to Serena’s defense for our shooting tonight,” Flanagan-Cornell coach Brian Yoder said. “They get after you from the second the ball goes up to start the game and they don’t let up. They have so much quickness and they use it very well on both ends of the floor. I mean they just keep coming after you and hardly give you a second to breathe. We didn’t handle their defense pressure as well as I would have hoped to.

“I wish we could have hit a couple more shots early on to give us some confidence, but it just didn’t happen for us. We’ll come back [Friday] ready to go and see what we can do.”

Lexington 67, Earlville 52

Earlville (13-1) jumped out to a 13-9 lead after one quarter and held a 30-26 advantage at halftime. Lexington took its first lead since the opening moments with a minute to go in the third and held a 45-41 lead heading to the fourth.

From there, the Minutemen (11-3) used a 10-4 run over the opening four minutes of the final frame, and held off a pair of Red Raiders runs to earn the win.

Senior Ethan Storm netted a game-high 27 points, including hitting 10 of 11 free throws, to pace Lexington, while classmate Griffin Hari hit five 3s on the way to 21 points.

“We have some really solid senior leadership this year, especially at the guard spots, and they really stepped things up in the fourth quarter for us,” Lexington coach Doug Yoder said. “Earlville is a very good team and one that is going to give opponents fits throughout the rest of the regular season and postseason. This game was what a semifinal game of a tournament should be, back-and-forth and each side taking turns holding the momentum. It just so happens we were able to take hold of that momentum at the start of the fourth and hang on to until the end.”

Ryan Browder topped Earlville with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Trenton Fruit added 13 points, while Griffin Cook registered 11 points, five rebounds and four assists.

“We are obviously disappointed in the outcome tonight and the fact that the winning streak is over,” Earlville coach Gerald Fruit said. “We knew Lexington was a very good team that really gets after you. There were times, especially at the start of the fourth quarter, where we were as patient as we wanted to be on the offensive end and made some mistakes that we normally don’t make.

“I really thought both teams played well throughout the game, but they just played a little bit better than we did in the final eight minutes. We’ve had to come back late in a couple of our games this season, but tonight we just couldn’t climb all the way back after a tough start to the fourth. We just have to come back tomorrow, be ready for another tough opponent, and hopefully end the tournament with a win and start another win streak.