Red-hot start helps lead Hall past Marquette at Shipyard Showdown

SENECA — The Hall boys basketball team got off to a hot start in Thursday’s 61-39 opening-round victory against Marquette at the Shipyard Showdown Tournament hosted by Seneca.

The Red Devils (6-5) used a 3-pointer each from Braden Curran and Wyatt West, a trey and free throw by Greyson Bickett, plus two hoops from Jack Jablonski to score the first 14 points of the game.

The Crusaders (4-8) were able to close the gap to 19-13 after the first eight minutes, but Hall, which hit its opening five shots and shot 59% in the first half, used a 15-5 second-quarter margin and 18-13 third-quarter advantage to help put the game away.

Hall advances to play Reed-Custer, a 41-37 winner over Indian Creek in the tournament’s opening game, at 9 a.m. Friday in the new gym. Marquette falls to the consolation side of the bracket and will play the Timberwolves at 9 a.m. Friday in the old gym.

“We got the guys up early today and shooting in our gym before we came over here. Then we talked about, because we haven’t played in this gym before, they needed to get as many shots up as they could during halftime of the prior game and in our warmups,” Hall coach Mike Filippini. “I’m not sure we could have shot the ball much better in the opening four minutes or in the first half. We rebounded the ball well (46-26) on both ends, which was another big key for us.”

Curran had a huge game for the Red Devils with a game-high 18 points and 13 rebounds. Jablonski had 15 points and six rebounds, West nine points, three rebounds and three assists and Bickett eight points and four assists.

“Last week we lost back-to-back games to Kewanee at home and really didn’t play as a team in either of those games,” Curran said. “Today we wanted to play for each other, come out with a hot start, and we were able to do that.

“We also talked about playing good, solid defense, and I felt we did that as well. It’s nice to be able to stay in the winner’s bracket.”

A layup by Marquette’s Alec Novotney two minutes into the second closed the gap to 23-15, but a drive by Jablonski was followed by a free-throw line jumper and top-of-the-key triple by Curran, then a 3-pointer by Luke Bryant to extend the lead to 33-15.

Marquette, which finished 16 of 49 (33%) from the field, was led by 13 points from Blayden Cassel, with Novotney and Marcus Baker each scoring six and Griffin Dobberstein adding five points.

“This was one our best man-to-man defensive performances we’ve had as a program in a long time,” Filippini said. “Novotney and Dobberstein are two very solid offensive players, guys that if they get 15-20 points each you’re more than likely going to have a tough time winning the game. We just kept rotating guys on those two and the guys we had guarding them today did a great job. I mean, one had six [points] and the other five. The kids did a great job of executing the game plan from start to finish today.”