Boys basketball: Charlie Mullen, Marquette best Seneca for Tri-County season title

SENECA – When the Seneca Fighting Irish claimed the Tri-County Conference Tournament title over Marquette in Granville on Jan. 27, they did it with their bigs, Lane Provance and Kysen Klinker, taking advantage of foul trouble for the Crusaders’ Charlie Mullen to pace their team’s 14-point win.

This time, with the conference regular-season championship on the line, the shoe was on the other foot.

It was Mullen who took advantage of the same foul-plagued absence for Provance and Klinker – both of whom fouled out late in the fourth quarter – by scoring eight of his 15 points and grabbing five of his 12 rebounds in those final eight minutes to lead Marquette to a 61-50 victory over the Irish on Tuesday night.

Denver Trainor scored 18 points, Alec Novotney had 13 – six in the final quarter – and Carson Zellers added 11 as the Cru (21-7, 9-0) clinched their seventh Tri-County season crown in the past 10 seasons.

Defending champion Seneca, which topped Marquette 68-54 in the tournament final last month, fell to 21-9 overall and 8-1 in conference, despite a game-best 27 points by all-state guard Paxton Giertz.

“Of course, I felt I had something to prove. It was a big game, it was Seneca again,” Mullen said. “Last time, I was in foul trouble and didn’t really have a chance against them. Tonight I wanted to show them what I’ve got, and I thought I played well.

“They won the last one, but I knew they weren’t going win this one. It feels great to be the conference champion.”

Marquette rolled to a 13-5 lead in the first quarter behind six points from Trainor, but three 3s from Giertz sparked the Irish to pull within 27-25 on a Provance basket with 24.2 seconds left in the half.

Two more Giertz 3s gave Seneca leads of 30-29 and 35-33 in the third quarter. However, a Novotney 3 and a three-point play by Zellers started a 17-2 run that put the Crusaders on top for good, the last on a Mullen bucket off a Pete McGrath assist with 4:14 left.

A flurry of three straight Marquette turnovers allowed Seneca to come within 56-50 on a Given Sigel basket with 1:06 left before four free throws by Novotney and one by Trainor iced the win.

“We knew we couldn’t stop them,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “Last time, we didn’t give up fighting, but we got tentative. We hadn’t played much zone, but we had to keep them from getting the ball inside, that’s how they beat us last time. We had to keep plugging.

“Giertz got his points, hit some deep 3s, but all in all Charlie played great, Peter held his own, Henry gave us good minutes and Zellers and Trainor had great games, as well. The kids played their butts off, and I’m really, really proud of them. Playing in a tough environment with all the marbles on the table, and we get to take the marbles home. Really proud of them.”

Provance fouled out with 2:16 to go with six points and four rebounds, and Klinker followed him to the bench at 1:51 with eight points and a team-high nine boards.

Giertz finished with seven 3s and 27 points to go with five rebounds.

“You can’t put yourself in situations that we put ourselves in from the middle of the third quarter on,” Seneca coach Russ Witte said. “We were sluggish coming out, without defensive energy, and it felt like we thought Seneca was gonna win and it was over. But this was Marquette, and this is the Seneca-Marquette rivalry. This was a lesson for everybody how fickle the game is and how a possession here or there can affect the outcome.

“When we play well, we have three guys in double figures. Tonight, Pax was Pax, making shots, but we needed someone else to step up and hit shots and no one did.”