Serena tops Marquette 50-36 for Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament title

FLANAGAN – The Serena and Marquette girls basketball teams nearly traded point for point the opening 18 minutes of Saturday’s championship game of the Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Girls Basketball Tournament.

But then the Huskers (4-0) used a game-changing 17-1 burst to end the third quarter and eventually captured a second-straight title at the event with a 50-36 victory over the Crusaders (3-1).

“We always talk about how we want to own the third quarter,” Serena coach Jim Jobst said. “We want to come out to start the second half strong, and that was the key today. Marquette got a couple layups to take the lead early in the third quarter, but then our girls just really stepped up their game from there on the defensive end of the floor.”

Serena led 11-10 after the opening eight minutes and 22-21 at halftime.

The third quarter began with a Maddie Glade short jumper for Serena that was countered by consecutive layups by Marquette’s Keely Nelson and Kaitlyn Davis to give the Crusaders a 25-24 lead.

From there, back-to-back 3-pointers from the Huskers’ Macy Mahler and Jenna Setchell and five points from Kendall Whiteaker gave their team a 10-point advantage. A free throw by the Crusaders’ Morgan Nelson snapped the streak, but consecutive rebound hoops from Mahler and Setchell and a layup by Finley Jobst closed out the frame with the Huskers leading 41-26.

“Our last game against Seneca was a defensive game all the way, and I think it helped our overall confidence knowing that we were able to play with a fast-paced team,” said Setchell, who finished with a game-high 14 points to go along with four rebounds, three assists and four steals. “We knew Marquette was similar in that they want to push the ball up the floor, so the key would be playing good solid defense again today.

“Coach Jobst talked a lot at halftime about how we needed to start making our free throws and also shots in close. We just missed way too many of those in the first half. He also said we needed to box out better, which to be honest, I’m not sure we did the whole game, but I guess our overall defense made up for it.”

Serena – 18-of-48 (38%) shooting from the field – received 13 points and eight rebounds from Mahler, nine points and six rebounds from Whiteaker, seven points from Glade and 10 rebounds from Anna Hjerpe.

“I wasn’t exactly sure how well we’d shoot the ball from the outside coming into the season, but at least for the most part these first four games we’ve shot it pretty well,” said Coach Jobst, his squad sinking 5 of 12 3s in the win. “I knew we’d defend well, and I thought we’d rebound well, so if we can shoot like we did tonight I think we’ll be OK.”

Davis led Marquette with 12 points, six rebounds and three assists, with Nelson adding eight points and five rebounds. Chloe Larson had seven points and Kelsey Cuchra six points and a game-best 11 rebounds.

The Crusaders, who finished 11-of-49 (22%) from the floor and just 4-of-27 on attempts in the second half, won the rebound battle 37-35 but lost the turnover margin 20-14.

“I thought coming into the season rebounding might be a struggle for us, but these first four games we’ve done a pretty good job,” Marquette coach Eric Price said. “I felt like we had been a pretty good defensive team overall coming into today, but in the third quarter we got caught on a couple bad switches, didn’t communicate and gave up some open looks.

“I think we kind of ran out a gas a little bit after the opening couple of minutes of the second half. We didn’t shoot the ball well the final 10 minutes. We had some open looks, but they just didn’t fall. We had what I feel were four tough games this week and ended up 3-1, and I saw a lot of good things.”

Serena’s Setchell, Mahler and Whitaker, as well as Marquette’s Davis and Hunter Hopkins were named to the all-tournament team.