Marquette staves Serena’s late charge, will meet Seneca for title

SERENA – Rivalry games. Just when you think you’ve got them figured, they turn a different way on you.

Riding an 11-point second quarter by sophomore Alec Novotney, the Marquette Crusaders were ahead 27-12 on host Serena at the half and seemed to be rolling to an easy win in their semifinal at the initial Huskers Hardwood Tip-Off Tournament.

But those pesky Huskers went ahead and made things interesting by the finish.

With the Crusaders still on top 41-25 heading into the final quarter, Serena showed it wouldn’t be pushed around on its own Al Stegman Court, getting a huge 14 points from Cash Raikes and another nine from Beau Raikes to slice the MA margin all the way down to seven, the last time at 58-51 with just 50.7 seconds remaining.

A couple of clutch free throws by Griffin Dobberstein and Matt Graham in that final minute slowed the home team’s roll, but the 60-51 win over the Huskers was far from the stroll in the park it started out as.

In Friday’s first semifinal, Seneca’s Paxton Giertz poured in 29 points in the first half alone, on his way to a career-high 39 points as the Fighting Irish easily disposed of Somonauk, 64-32.

Those decisions set up the championship contest between intense rivals, Tri-County Conference regular-season and tournament final perennials Marquette and Seneca, at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. That’s immediately following the 4 p.m. third-place contest between Serena and Somonauk.

Marquette 58, Serena 51

“That (Cash Raikes) kid hit some big shots (four 3s, finishing with 21 points) that were pretty tough shots against us, so you have to tip your hat to him,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We gave up too many points, 26, for them having 25 after the third, so we didn’t do a very good job in the fourth. … We played really hard, two very similar teams, but we just gutted it out and did what we needed to do.

“Playing Seneca for the championship, we hope it’s one of many this year, but they’re really good, and Giertz is a stud. We have to figure out a way to stop him when nobody else has the first three nights.”

Obviously, all the drama was in the nightcap, when Novotney battled through some rough-and-tumble play to finish with a game-best 25 points.

His second-period output gave the Crusaders a solid lead, but it hovered around mid-double digits until the Huskers found themselves. Cash Raikes hit his first bomb to start the final quarter, then added another with 4 minutes, 41 seconds to play to start a 9-0 Serena burst that trimmed the margin to 48-41 with under 3:25 left.

Marquette’s Lucas Craig and Blayden Cassel each sank a pair of free throws to end that threat, and a Novotney floater and Dobberstein bucket widened it back to 56-44 with 1:56 showing. However, Cash Raikes popped in a trey from 10 feet beyond the arc and added two tosses to cut it back to seven. Beau Raikes netted the last of his 14 points with 55.3 left before the Cru’s clinching tosses.

“We just dug ourselves too big a hole,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “In the first half, we couldn’t find anything that worked, but the kids kept fighting for rebounds, getting stops and hitting shots. … Cash is a pretty good shooter when he’s on.

“In the second half, we picked up our defensive effort tremendously, no one player in particular, but as a group. The turnaround, it was a total team effort.”

Seneca 64, Somonauk 32

Giertz is the main attraction anywhere he plays these days, but that it was his night was evident from the tip. The 6-3 senior guard connected on 8 of his 9 shots – three of them from beyond the arc – to finish the opening eight minutes with 19 points as the Irish raced out to a 23-13 lead.

Giertz reverted to a more human 5-of-8 shooting in the second for his next 10, but the Seneca lead grew to 35-17. He capped his night with a trey with 1.3 seconds left in the third stanza before leaving the game with his team up 58-22.

“When a player like Pax makes up his mind to do something, you let him do it,” Seneca coach Russ Witte said. “The school record is 51, but we weren’t going to do that with [the score] like it was. …

“I was really impressed with our defense. We moved well, ready well and we let a few too many rebounds go, but this was a good one for us … and we know we’re going to need another good one tomorrow.”

Brock Sexton led the Bobcats with nine points, while Weston Hannibal added six, but the talk was of Giertz.

“At least we held him under 40,” Bobcats coach Curt Alsvig said, joking. “We tried to force him to shoot jumpers, and most of his shots were jumpers. … We could’ve tried junk defenses on him, but he’s going to get his points anyway. … He’s a special player.”