Marquette a Winner in Cedar Hill

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Coming off two narrow losses to good teams in Washington and Webster Groves at the recently-completed Meramec Tourney, it was on the Mustangs’ to-do list to open the new calendar year with a good performance.  After a shaky first half, task completed as MHS took home a 56-26 win over Northwest.

Everything that the Lions had planned coming in was coming to fruition as the first 16:00 of play unfolded.  With several possessions lasting 45 seconds and upwards to a minute-and-a-half, Northwest was limiting opportunities on both ends of the floor.  After taking a 9-4 lead early on the strength of seven early points by Matt Hink (each bucket being assisted by Chris Lenzen), the Mustangs found themselves up by a deuce as the Lions nailed a long buzzer-beater in front of the MHS bench to pull to within 9-7 after a quarter.

The 6-8 senior Max Sidney contributed early in the second.  Max converted on a three-point play off a feed from Brooks Gerrity early to put his team up 12-7.  A couple of minutes later, Gerrity hit the team’s first trey of the night after five misses leading up to that point as a 12-12 tie was broken.  Late Matt Hink free throws put the visitors ahead by a 17-12 count at halftime in a game that seemed devoid of offensive efficiency but was in fact, devoid of offensive opportunities.  MHS had tallied its 17 points on only 18 total possesions (an unusally low amount of trips for a typical high school half).

In order to distance themselves from the pesky host Lions, the key for Marquette in the second was pace (most specifically, a quickening of).  A pace that could be kindly termed plodding was very quickly established in the Mustangs’ favor early on.  On the first five trips, MHS converted on a pull-up by Gerrity, a short transition jumper by Tanner Stabenow and two buckets by Hink.  With the score now at 25-12, Consecutive long threes by Gerrity and two more buckets by Hink (Matt finished with a game-high 20 after only playing in the opening three quarters) effectively put the game in Marquette’s hand up 38-20 after three periods.

In the fourth, Gerrity nailed his fourth three-pointer, Sidney earned his first career Hard Hat Award with another tough post move, Dillon Jones hit from long range, John Conlon continued his comeback after facial surgery with a late bucket and the Mustangs celebrated three players tallying their first career varsity points.  Junior Chad Nieder converted off the break and sophs Jack Matzen and RJ Drury hit free throws to enter the scoring column for the first time as varsity players and round out the 56-26 win.

The Mustangs take to the road for a non-conference tilt next Tuesday, January 8 for a 6pm tip at Parkway Central.

Leading Scorers:  Matt Hink-20, Brooks Gerrity-16, Max Sidney-7.  Leading Rebounders:  Hink-7, Chris Lenzen-6, Sidney-5.  Leading Assists:  Lenzen-4, Chad Nieder-3.  HARD HAT AWARD WINNER:  Max Sidney

For game stats-click HERE

For video highlights-click HERE