Dwight girls basketball coach Max Sulzberger said the Trojans are practicing defense this season more than they ever have.

Because of their aggressive defense, the Trojans held an early lead, even as Marquette showed them a defensive look they haven’t seen this season. The Trojans soon figured out things offensively on their way to a 61-31 win at Bader Gym.

The Trojans (8-3) pressured the ball and forced the Crusaders (2-7) into turnovers throughout the game.

“Our defense is showing up,” Sulzberger said. “We’re also more athletic than we’ve been in years past, so obviously athletes help in the world of defense. I’m proud of them so far.”

While Dwight trailed just twice in the opening minutes of the game, the Crusaders were within two points, 19-17, with about 4 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

To close out the half, the Trojans went on a 13-1 run, propelled by a Makayla Wahl-Seabert 3-pointer and five points from Mikayla Chambers, who led all scorers Tuesday with 20 points.

“We’ve never played a 2-1-2 (defense) yet this season,” Chambers said. “When we figured out how to rotate the ball and skip pass and then penetrate into the lane and kick out, then I think we started finding more open looks and then that motivated us to play even harder defense, so we were getting more transition buckets.”

The Trojans continued to control the game after halftime, scoring the first 12 points of the third quarter, building a 26-point lead.

Marquette coach Eric Price said the Crusaders missed some opportunities to keep the game close.

“We had a hard time in transition, and we missed a ton of layups. If I had to guess, we missed about 15 layups,” Price said. “When you look at the scoreboard and we lost by 30, well, we missed 15 layups, and some of those were uncontested.

“I thought we shied away from the contact when we had the ball on offense, but then we got outrebounded.”

The Crusaders scored 14 of their 31 points at the free-throw line. Kaitlyn Davis led Marquette with 15 points.

Along with Chambers, Ryan Bean turned in a double-digit performance with 15 points for Dwight. Sophia Buck converted one of the Trojans’ four 3-pointers by making a near half-court shot at the third quarter buzzer. Chambers also hit a two-point shot right before the horn in the first quarter.

“This is a tough place to play, we’ve always struggled coming over here,” Sulzberger said of Bader Gym. “I knew we were going to have to have a ton of energy, especially with the 5:30 p.m. start, which is different than most nights playing at 7 o’clock. ... And for the most part, the first quarter was tight, but we didn’t drift away one way or the other, and I just say they continued to battle.”

Price said he was encouraged by Marquette’s offense creating opportunities, but the Crusaders will need to improve in their execution. Marquette got six points from Kinley Rick and four from Hunter Hopkins.

“We’ve got to fight through adversity,” Price said. “When they start going on a run, we’re looking for an answer. You think ‘we’re going to get a stop.’ You think, ‘that’s it right there, we’re going to come down and score.’ We’d get a look, but we couldn’t string the baskets together.”