Marquette Gets Past Smith-Cotton

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In the first-ever meeting between the Mustangs and their counterparts from Sedalia, Marquette was able to stretch out a fast first quarter start and advance to the winners bracket of the 82^nd Eldon Invitational by a 57-26 count.

Chris Lenzen, playing in his third Eldon Tourney, opened the event with a three from the left corner.  After a couple of stray shots, Matt Hink tallied off a Tanner Stabenow feed (Hink would finish with a game-high 15 points and 11 boards in a little over 17 minutes of PT).  After Stabenow, Dillon Jones and Hink again scored, the Mustangs led it 12-2 going into a Smith-Cotton time-out.  A buzzer-beating Stabenow trey off great team ball movement gave MHS a 15-4 first quarter lead.

Lenzen again got the opening bucket for the Mustangs in the second quarter.  Four free throws (two each by Brooks Gerrity and Hink) followed to increase the lead to 21-7.  The bigs for Marquette closed out the half.  The 6-8 senior, Max Sidney scored off a dish from Hink and Matt nailed the last three shots of the half (the last a buzzer-beating inbounds pass from Lenzen) to give the white-clad Marquette squad a 29-11 half-time margin.

The second half started slowly as Marquette misfired on its first two trips down the floor but a couple of free throws by Hink got the Mustang offense going again.  The remainder of the quarter featured 6/6 shooting for MHS on deuces by Gerrity, John Conlon (twice out on the break), Lenzen and treys by Lenzen and Sam Ploeger.  The Mustangs extended the lead after three periods to 47-19.

The Marquette bench got into the act in the fourth.  Soph RJ Drury hit his first career varsity three-pointer and fellow 10^th grader Jacobi Boykins got in the act with his initial varsity career points on a 2/2 trip to the foul line.

The final 57-26 victory gives Marquette its third consecutive trip to the Eldon semi-finals.  Another first-ever game awaits as the Mustangs will take on Carl Junction (an 80-50 winner over School of the Osage) in a 7:30 contest on Friday, January 25.

Leading Scorers:  Matt Hink-15, Chris Lenzen-8.  Leading Rebounders:  Hink-11, Lenzen-5.  Leading Assists:  Dillon Jones-5, Lenzen-5, Tanner Stabenow-3.  HARD HAT AWARD WINNER:  John Conlon. 

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