Alec Novotney’s fourth quarter lifts Marquette past Earlville

OTTAWA – If a team is going to be good for only a portion of the game, it should probably be the first part or the last part – or in the case for Marquette on Friday night, both.

Ultimately, it was the finish that did in Earlville.

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Marquette's hangs on to force a jump ball with Earlville's Gavin Guelde and Adam Waite on Friday, Jan. 3, 2025 in Bader Gym at Marquette High School. (Scott Anderson)

Alec Novotney, who had been held without a field goal in six tries through the first three-and-a-half quarters of the nonconference clash in Bader Gymnasium, suddenly erupted in the final three minutes for three straight buckets. The middle one was a 3-pointer that gave the Crusaders a lead it would never relinquish in a 43-36 comeback victory over the Red Raiders.

The Crusaders (7-10) had roared out to early leads on the strength of 11 first-quarter points by Griffin Dobberstein, but the visitors bounced back behind a big 16-point, 13-rebound performance by 6-foot-7 center Adam Waite to lead by as many as six points in the late second and early third quarters.

It wasn’t until Novotney drained a 15-footer with 3:16 to play to tie the score at 34-34, then gave MA the lead for good 26 seconds later with a huge 3 from the left side of the key.

Novotney finished with 17 points and Dobberstein had 15.

“I just had to be confident in shooting the ball,” Novotney said. “I’m confident that I’m going to make every shot that I take and that helped me in the fourth quarter. … We got outhustled all game, but we just got more physical and played tough in the fourth and that was enough in the end.”

The Raiders (3-13) held MA to 30% shooting (9 of 30) through three quarters and on the night held a 36-23 rebound advantage. However, Earlville shot just 29.1% (14 of 48), including 2 of 11 in the fourth period, while Novotney was leading the home club to a 4-for-6 stanza.

“Give Earlville credit. They outhustled us for three-and-a-half quarters and they kicked our butt on the boards all night,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said, “but to our guys’ credit, we buckled down in the fourth and came through at the end. We have to play more of a complete game, like the one we played at Seneca (Shipyard Classic) against Woodland … Tonight, Dobber had a good first quarter for us and Alec came through at the end, but we just quit scoring in the second and third.

“The bottom line is we came back and won, and that’s three out of four for us right now. We have to look at it from that perspective, that we’re playing better but offensively we’re just struggling right now. We just have to keep grinding and hope the game slows down for our younger guys.”

Dobberstein’s three 3-pointers in the first 3:35 of the game pushed Marquette in front, but six points from Waite and five from Colton Fruit – the last three on a buzzer-beating fade-away shot – gave the Raiders a 16-12 lead after one.

After their biggest leads in the middle quarters, a lob to Waite gave Earlville a 34-32 lead with 6:32 left. It took three minutes before Novotney would tie it and seconds later give MA the edge.

A Gavin Guelde basket pulled the Raiders within one, but another Novotney 3 all but iced the win.

“We were doing so many things right, I thought we had an excellent chance to hang on to this one in a pretty tough place to play,” Earlville coach Gerald Fruit said. “Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way we played all night … but we lost our poise a little bit there at the end – at the wrong time it turned out, and they took advantage.

“We thought they’d go a lot more inside than they did. Dobberstein hurt us early and Novotney hit the shots late. … But the kids really hit the boards hard that helped us after falling behind early. That allowed us to hold on to that lead for most of it.”