It has been an up and down season for the Seneca girls basketball team.

The Fighting Irish went through a stretch where they lost 12 of 13 games, but after Thursday’s 69-39 Tri-County Conference victory over rival Marquette on senior night, they have won three straight and six of their last eight.

“We knew coming into this year after who we lost last year it was going to be a rebuilding year for the program,” Seneca senior forward Tessa Krull said. “It’s been a rollercoaster, no doubt about that, but we’ve all stuck together and we’re playing really good basketball right now.”

Seneca (12-16, 4-3) - which used a game-changing 19-6 burst to close out the third quarter to extend an eight-point lead - was led by 19 points from Emma Mino, including five 3-pointers, and three assists. Graysen Provance had 16 points, seven rebounds and three assists, Krull posted 11 points, 14 rebounds and three steals, and senior Camryn Stecken eight points and three rebounds.

The Irish shot 26 of 65 (40%) from the floor and won both the rebound (53-28) and turnover (11-18) margins.

“As seniors, Tessa and I want to make sure everyone on this team is having fun. Tonight was fun for sure,” Stecken said. “Has this season always been fun? No. But even in those not so fun times we’ve always stayed positive and just kept trying hard and trying to improve.

“I feel like we’ve come a long way since the beginning of the season, and I agree with Tessa, I feel like we are really playing well right now. We just have to keep things rolling.”

The hosts led 10-8 after one quarter and 26-16 at halftime. Marquette closed to eight early in the third on a pair of free throws each from Hunter Hopkins and Kaitlyn Davis.

Seneca then used seven points from Krull and six from Mino closed out the period on the aforementioned burst.

“We knew Marquette was going to come out hard and come after us. They took away a lot of things offensively that we like to do in the first half, and we had to make some adjustments at halftime,” Seneca coach Josh Myers said. “I thought our defense was pretty good the entire game, but the final six minutes or so of the third quarter I felt it was some of the best defense we’ve played all season.

“A big key for us was to try and limit Kaitlyn and Hunter as best we could and I thought we did a pretty good job with that. We didn’t let them get hot and go on a huge run.”

Davis popped in a game-best 21 points, grabbed eight rebounds and picked up a trio of steals to lead Marquette (9-18, 2-4). Hopkins finished with eight points, four rebounds and three steals, while Emily Ryan Adair chipped in five points and three rebounds. The Crusaders ended 13 of 44 (30%) from the floor.

“The biggest thing was rebounding, and their size advantage played a key in that,” Marquette coach Eric Price said. “They outrebounded us by 25 (including 24 offensive rebounds), so over the course of a game those second and third chances are going to add up. We also didn’t take care of the ball very well and they were able to convert a number of turnovers into points.

“We kept things close throughout the first half and only trailed by eight there early in the second half. From there it just seemed like Seneca couldn’t miss while we couldn’t get anything to fall.”

Marquette is back in action at Serena on Saturday. Seneca is off until it travels to play Plano on Monday.