Photo by Eric Stauffer
Photo by Eric Stauffer
Photo by Eric Stauffer
EDWARDSVILLE — The Marquette Catholic Explorers decimated the Staunton Bulldogs 58-17 in the Metro East Lutheran Turkey Tip-off Classic on Wednesday.
Junior guard Reagan Snider led the Explorers with 17 points, highlighted by a trio of 3-pointers. Sophomore Isaiah Ervin finished with 12 points, and fellow sophomore Nick Hemann finished with 10. Eight players in total scored for Marquette on Wednesday.
With the win the Explorers moved to 2-0 and won the Pool A title. They advance to the gold bracket semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday, awaiting the winner between host MELHS and Gillespie. That game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Friday.
“We got a lot of momentum going, and we just kept it up,” Snider said. “The only thing we knew about Staunton was that they beat Christ our Rock Lutheran by 4 points, and we had beaten that team by 40 points, so we were confident it would be a good game for us.”
The Explorers blanked the Bulldogs 26-0 in the first quarter and were able to tally 31 points before the Bulldogs ever got on the scoreboard. Staunton's Brady Kinder broke the shutout streak by hitting a 3-pointer to cut the score 31-3.
Kinder was the only Bulldog to score the entire first half. After Kinder's 3-pointer, the Explorers went on another marathon run. By the end of the third quarter the Explorers were comfortably ahead 54-7.
Staunton came out stronger in the fourth however, outscoring the Explorers 10-4 in the final frame.
Marquette head coach Steve Medford was happy with the win. He felt that his team was well suited to
combat the defense the Bulldogs were trying to play.
“They played us man-to-man,” said Medford. “Our goal is to play hard no matter what the competition,
and tonight was no different. I told our guys not to look at the scoreboard and just be ready.”
All in all, Marquette had 24 total field goals, six of them coming from behind the 3-point arc.
The Explorers came into Wednesday on the heels of another lopsided 77-32 win on Tuesday night against Christ our Rock Lutheran. In that game the Explorers hit 11 3-point shots and had 11 players in all score points.
With the win, the Explorers are one step closer to winning their fourth tournament championship. Last
year, Marquette placed third in the 18-team tournament after beating Southwestern 57-29 in the third-place game.
Staunton dropped to 1-1 in the tournament and will move on to play on Friday in the Silver Bracket. They will await the winner of Game 19 between Roxana and Marissa on Friday morning.