Defense was the name of the game in the quarterfinals of the Seneca Shipyard Showdown on Tuesday. At least, in the games involving Ottawa Marquette, Wilmington, Hall and Seneca.

Marquette used a 10-point scoring run in the second quarter as a springboard and turned a tight game into one that was a bit more comfortable and the Crusaders downed Wilmington 52-40. After that, Hall broke open a tight game in the third quarter en route to a 41-30 win over Seneca.

In the first game, Marquette (8-3) got out to a 6-2 lead early, but Wilmington answered with five straight points to move ahead 7-6. The Crusaders, who will play top-seeded Lexington on Friday in the semifinals, countered by outscoring the Wildcats 8-4 the rest of the period to take a 14-11 lead into the second.

Wilmington (6-3) got to within 17-16 after a 3-pointer by Brysen Meents (game-high 15 points) early in the second, but Marquette answered with a 10-0 spurt, sparked by three straight baskets by sophomore Blayden Cassel and a basket each by Easton DeBernardi and Alec Novotney (11 points), to grab a 27-16 lead and took a 30-21 lead into halftime.

Lucas Craig scored seven of his game-high 14 points in the third quarter to help the Crusaders keep the lead in or near double-digits for most of the quarter and they led 42-30 heading into the fourth. Craig had five rebounds for Marquette, as did Cassel, while Griffin Dobberstein scored nine points.

“We like to play tough defense,” Craig said. “What we really want is for our defense to create opportunities for our offense.

“The good thing about this team is that we are just looking to put the ball in the basket. We don’t care who scores, as long as someone does. Everyone is always looking to make that next pass to someone who is open for a better shot.”

Wilmington cut the lead to 10 at 42-32 on a basket by Ryan Kettman (14 points) early in the fourth, but that was a close as the Wildcats got. Dobberstein drained a 3-pointer to kick off a 7-2 Marquette spurt that gave the Crusaders a 49-34 lead that was too much for Wilmington to overcome.

“We were a little sloppy at times,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “Wilmington is a good club. They dictated the pace a little bit in the fourth quarter and I was glad to see our kids battle through it.

“We did a good job of finding the open guy on offense. Our bigs played well, which was good because Wilmington is very physical and we held up to that.”

It was the second game of the day for both teams and Wilmington, with only 10 players on the roster, ran out of gas.

“Ottawa Marquette had more depth than we did,” Wilmington coach Doug Krop said. “They are also solid at every position. They have some size and I was worried about rebounding, but we hung in there.

“We had a couple of stretches where we had some turnovers and scoring droughts. But, Marquette put up 70 in their first game and we held them to 52. We’ll keep working and getting in basketball shape. Hopefully we will be one of those teams no one wants to see when the postseason starts.”

In the next game, tight defense by both teams kept the scoring to a minimum. Hall got 3-pointers by Braden Curran (5 points) and Noah Plym (10 points) to take a 6-0 lead before Seneca got on the board with 1:05 left to play in the quarter on a basket by James Zydron (team-high 10 points) and the quarter ended with the Red Devils leading 6-2.

Seneca’s offense headed up a bit in the second, and the Irish opened the quarter with consecutive baskets by Zydron, Brayden Simek and Brady Sheedy to take an 8-6 lead. Hall’s Luke Bryant (9 points) answered with an old-fashioned 3-point play before Seneca’s Cam Shriey hit a 3-pointer to put the Irish ahead 11-9. Chevy Langham hit a 3-pointer late in the quarter to give the Devils a 12-11 halftime lead.

Hall, which plays Indian Creek on Friday in the semifinals, got seven points from Chace Sterling in the third quarter to help push the lead to 28-18 heading into the fourth.

“Defensively, we were good all game,” Sterling said. “In the second half, we were a little stronger offensively.

“We do a good job of finding who is hot and giving them the ball. It was nice to win a tournament game against the host on their own floor.”

Seneca’s Miles LeRoy scored on a fast-break layup off a steal by teammate Jesus Govea, then drained a 3-pointer. A basket by Govea pulled the Irish to within 28-25. Hall answered with a 3-pointer by Langham and a free throw by Sterling, who also had a nine rebounds to go with his nine points. After another basket by LeRoy, the Devils got a free throw each by Curran and Sterling before a 3-pointer by Plym put them ahead 38-27. A 3-pointer by Zydron made it 38-30 and Hall iced it with free throws.

“It might not have looked pretty, but an 11-point win on a host’s floor is pretty to me,” Hall coach Mike Fillipini said.