Boys basketball: Serena suffers first loss, falls to Lexington for Marquette Christmas Tourney title

OTTAWA – The Serena boys basketball team was looking to keep its unbeaten streak alive and hoping to capture its first championship at the Marquette Christmas Tournament since 2016, when the event was the Marseilles Holiday Tournament.

While the top-seeded Huskers battled to the bitter end, the No. 2-seeded Minutemen — namely senior Ethan Storm — just wouldn’t let either of those things happen.

The tournament’s MVP, Storm poured in a game-high 27 points, grabbed six rebounds, handed out three assists and swiped three steals to lead Lexington to a 51-43 victory at Bader Gym on Friday night.

“Ethan has worked his butt off to be the player he is,” Lexington coach Doug Yoder said in between handshakes and hugs. “He wanted it tonight, and you could tell from the moment he got on the bus to get here to warmups and throughout the entire game. He played an incredible game for us and deserved to be the most valuable player of the tournament. He was sure that for us. ...

“We were able to beat two undefeated teams on back-to-back nights to win a tournament championship. It been a pretty good week.”

“The outcome of the game is something to be disappointed about, but it wasn’t from lack of anything other than we just didn’t put the ball in the basket as well as we would have hoped. Hopefully we can be in a few more games like this the rest of the season.”

—  Dain Twait, Serena boys basketball coach

Serena, which falls to 14-1 and hit just 34% (17 of 50) from the field, including an ice-cold 3 of 25 from beyond the arc, trailed 6-4 after one quarter, 27-19 at halftime and 34-31 after three quarters.

“Struggling to score the basketball is going to happen in games like this where both sides are pretty solid defensively. We didn’t shoot the ball very well at all, but you have to credit Lexington for much of that,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “We just couldn’t really get anything going against their (1-2-2) zone, and we also had way too many unforced turnovers, a couple in key spots in the fourth quarter.

“If you would have told me we’d only score 43 points tonight, I’d have said you’re crazy. The scoreboard says what it says, so hats off to Lexington. We had a number of chances to either tie or take the lead late to mid fourth quarter, but we just could get the next basket we needed to get over the hump.”

It was a one-possession game for much of the final quarter until a free throw and rebound basket by the Minutemen’s Michael Olson pushed the lead to 43-37 with just under three minutes to play.

A short jumper by Serena’s Tanner Faivre and Richie Armour’s layup over the next minute cut the deficit to 43-41, but Storm answered with a three-point play off a drive and then swished four consecutive free throws around a pair of Huskers missed 3s to close out the game.

Lexington (14-3) shot 32% (15 of 47), but meshed 7 of 20 from the arc and outrebounded Serena 36-35.

“Coach Yoder talked before the game how rebounding, making it a one-and-done, was going to be a big key in the game,” said Storm, who led the tournament in scoring with 92 points. “We had to hold our own on the boards. He also talked about not taking even one single possession off on the defensive end. Everyone had to do their job. I think we did a pretty good job in all three of those things tonight.

“My team counts on me for a lot of things, but I think most importantly to keep things on an even keel. But we also have a big shotmaker like Griffin Hari that just seems to make the biggest shots at the biggest times. He did that again for us tonight.”

Behind Storm, Hari scored 12 points on four 3-pointers and shared rebounding honors with eight apiece with Olson and Hayden Stennett.

Armour and Hunter Staton paced Serena with 16 points each, the former with five rebounds and three blocks, and the latter with six rebounds. Faivre finished with seven points, 10 rebounds and six assists, while Carson Baker pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Faivre, Baker and Hari were all named to the all-tournament team.

“The outcome of the game is something to be disappointed about, but it wasn’t from lack of anything other than we just didn’t put the ball in the basket as well as we would have hoped,” Twait said. “Hopefully we can be in a few more games like this the rest of the season.”

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Marquette Christmas Tournament, Bader Gymnasium

Championship game

Lexington 51, Serena 43

SERENA (43) — Baker 1-7 0-0 2, Raikes 0-2 2-2 2, Faivre 3-14 0-0 7, Armour 7-11 2-5 16, Staton 6-16 2-2 16, Farrell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-50 6-9 43.

LEXINGTON (51) — Friedmansky 0-5 0-2 0, Storm 7-15 10-13 27, Hari 4-13 0-0 12, T. Steffen 1-3 2-2 4, Olson 1-5 1-2 3, Grunloh 0-0 0-0 0, Sennett 2-6 1-2 5, J. Steffen 0-0 0-0 0, Meints 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-47 14-21 51.

Serena (14-1) 4 15 12 12 — 43

Lexington (14-3) 6 21 7 17 — 51

3-point shots — Serena 3-25 (Baker 0-4, Raikes 0-2, Faivre 1-10, Staton 2-9); Lexington 7-20 (Friedmansky 0-4, Storm 3-5, Hari 4-10, Olson 0-1). Rebounds — Serena 35 (Baker 11, Faivre 10); Lexington 36 (Hari 8, Olson 8, Sennett 8). Assists — Serena 10 (Faivre 6); Lexington 7 (Friedmansky 3, Storm 3). Steals — Serena 5 (Staton 3); Lexington 7 (Storm 3). Blocks — Serena 7 (Armour 3, Staton 2); Lexington 0. Turnovers — Serena 13, Lexington 12. Total fouls (none fouled out) — Serena 17, Lexington 12.