Boys basketball: Seneca, Marquette to again clash for T-CC Tournament championship

GRANVILLE – Here we go again.

In a repeat of last season’s matchup, Seneca will meet Marquette Academy at 8 p.m. Saturday for the championship of the 97th Tri-County Conference Tournament.

The top-seeded Fighting Irish used a 12-2 burst to start the fourth quarter to eventually top No. 4 Midland 69-50 in Thursday’s first semifinal at Putnam County’s R.M. Germano Gymnasium. The No. 2-seeded Crusaders put together a 13-5 run at the early stages of the final quarter in a 69-52 triumph over No. 3 Woodland in the second contest of the evening.

Marquette won last year’s title game 59-54 over Seneca.

The Warriors will play the Timberwolves in the third-place game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.

Seneca 69, Midland 50

The Fighting Irish (17-7) hit the floor running and defending against the Timberwolves (10-13), forcing 10 turnovers in the opening quarter and pushing to a 14-6 lead.

“Since the end of December, our biggest thing has been to play as hard as we can, especially on defense every second we are on the floor,” Seneca junior guard Paxton Giertz said. “There is always someone that can come in to give you a break, and I feel we are all confident on whoever that may be is going to do a great job. The key for us is our full-court pressure, and to be honest the past couple of games, I feel our defense has really kept us either in the game or helped us win the game.”

Midland hung tough, however, and trailed 23-16 at halftime and 39-30 heading to the fourth quarter.

Giertz, who had only six points in the first half and had heated up in the third quarter with 10 points, netted his team’s first nine points of the fourth quarter to help Seneca extend its lead to 58-38 with four minutes to play. Seneca went 9 for 9 shooting in the final eight minutes.

Giertz finished with a game-high 32 points, including 11 of 12 from the foul line, and seven steals. Brady Sheedy added 15 points, and Lane Provance had 12 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Keagan Faulkner paced Midland with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

“I didn’t shoot the ball very well in the first half from the outside,” Giertz said. “I made up my mind at halftime that in the second half I was going to try and get to the basket more. My hope was I could get a couple layups to go or get my shot back a little with some free throws. I know when my shot isn’t there early on, I have to get myself going by using a drive, to really either score or kick to one of my teammates for an open shot.”

Marquette 69, Woodland 52

The Crusaders (14-6) led the Warriors (14-8) after the first quarter 23-19 and at halftime 37-27.

“We talked a lot about getting off to a strong start tonight and I think we did a better job of that than we did [in the quarterfinals] on Tuesday,” Marquette sophomore guard Alec Novotney said. “We also knew we’d have to stay with [Woodland’s] shooters. They have a few guys that can really hurt you if you leave them open. It seemed like as the game went on, we did a better job of not giving them too many open shots.”

A layup by Woodland’s Nick Plesko and a 3-pointer by Tucker Hill closed the gap to 42-36 with three minutes left in the third, but Marquette responded with two free throws by Peter McGrath, a 3-pointer by Novotney and a buzzer-beating 3 by Henry McGrath to extend the advantage back to 50-36.

The Crusaders then opened the fourth with 3s from Griffin Dobberstein and Carson Zellers, as well as baskets from Charlie Mullen and Denver Trainor to pull away.

Novotney finished with 27 points, including six 3-pointers, for the Cru. Trainor added 15 points, Mullen eight points, 10 rebounds and two blocks and McGrath seven points and five rebounds.

“I’m just shooting the ball well right now,” said Novotney, who sank nine 3s on Tuesday. “My teammates are getting me the ball in open spots and I’m confident that any shot I take is going in right now. I feel like I’ve shot the ball pretty well all season, but the last two games it’s just been clicking for me.”

Woodland was paced by 21 points and six rebounds from Plesko, with Hill swishing four triples for his 12 points, while Jon Moore chipped in nine points and six rebounds.

“I thought my guys played extremely hard from start to finish, battled to the end and gave it everything they had,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said. “We were able to get off to the great start, but I think as the game wore on, we slowly ran out of gas.

“Novotney was coming off a nine 3[-pointer] night, so we knew we had to make sure we had to stay with him. But he did a good job of finding openings and he only needs a half a second to get a shot off. He was able to get free on some screens in the half court and got lost in transition a couple times and it seemed like every time he made us pay.”