Girls basketball: Big 3rd quarter sends young Marquette past young Dwight

OTTAWA – The fact that athletic youth can be invigorating and frustrating was evident on both ends of the court Monday night in Bader Gymnasium.

It was more the former for the Marquette Crusaders, and the latter for Dwight.

In the Tri-County Conference battle pitting teams whose rosters include only one senior each, the Crusaders used a somewhat new lineup, a slight edge in experience and some red-hot shooting to break open a close game in the third quarter.

Hitting 9 of 13 shots from the field, Marquette (8-9 overall, 3-3 Tri-County) outscored the Trojans 20-5 during that period and cruised to a 55-26 running-clock victory.

Lilly Craig had 16 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two assists to lead the way, while two new members of the starting lineup – Chloe Larson and Keely Nelson – scored 12 points each to help make the conference matchup a rout.

Avery Durdan added eight points and eight rebounds, Nelson grabbed seven rebounds, and Larson had four rebounds, four assists and two steals to the win.

Dwight (6-10) was led by Kassy Kodat with eight points.

“When Lilly gets so much attention we need to have other girls to knock down shots the way Keely and Chloe did tonight. That’s big for us,” Marquette coach Eric Price said. “This is the third game with this lineup. We don’t really have a major drop-off from player 5 to player 8. … [Former starters] Maera Jimenez and Makayla Backos are good players who defend, bang inside and do the dirty work for us, but sometimes we need another [offensive] spark out there.

“Third quarters have been our crutch all year so the focus at halftime was to come out, keep the energy flowing and speed the game up a little bit, which favored us, and we were able to do those things and pull away.”

A 15-footer and a 3-pointer by Larson in the last 2 minutes, 50 seconds of the first quarter helped Marquette lead 11-5, and baskets by Nelson and Craig around a Larson 3 widened the gap to 18-8 in the second before the Trojans showed some fight, climbing to within 22-16 on a steal and layup by Njomz Asllani with 1:20 to play.

However, a jumper by Craig and 3-pointer by Nelson in the final 1:08 of the half started a 33-5 burst that extended through the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

The Crusaders played with focus and energy in the third, getting six points from Durdan, five from Nelson and four from Larson to race out to leads of 33-16 and 43-19 in the third, and 55-21 in the final stanza.

Marquette’s hot shooting in that quarter helped it finish the night 24 for 49 (48.9%) from the field. Those figures were amplified by a huge 42-19 edge on the glass.

Dwight, meanwhile, made only 1 of 8 shots to start that quarter and finished the game shooting 21.7% (10 for 46) on the game.

“We’re young, and we’re not shooting the ball real well right now, and this was the third straight game we haven’t shot well … and Marquette did knock down shots,” Dwight coach Max Sulzberger said. “The girls are giving a ton of effort in practice and games, and they work on shooting every day, but it’s just not translating into games right now. I can tell the girls are a little discouraged because the work they’re putting in isn’t showing up on the scoreboard yet.

“But it will. It will take some time to turn it around. The ball’s just not falling for us, and it’s tough to win games when that’s happening. It’s frustrating.”

The Cru will play another Tri-County game at home this week, facing Midland at Bader Gym on Thursday, while Dwight returns home for a league battle with Roanoke-Benson. Both games are at 7 p.m.