Alec Novotney pops in 30 to lead Marquette past St. Bede

OTTAWA – As messy as things started out for both Marquette and St. Bede, everyone in Bader Gym knew eventually one of them would clean things up considerably and take control of their Friday night Tri-County Conference match-up.

Though his hair might be a little long for the role, color Alec Novotney as the real Mr. Clean.

The 6-foot junior guard canned a late second-quarter 3 to give the Crusaders a five-point lead at the half, but then he just kept going.

After missing his first shot of the third period, Novotney connected on nine consecutive shots from the field – seven of them in that stanza to give him 15 points in the quarter – on his way to a game-best 30 points, pacing MA to a 58-43 victory over the Bruins.

With his club-high six rebounds, he also led a decisive 37-29 edge on the glass and chipped in on the defense that limited SBA ace Carson Riva to just three points and the Bedans as a whole to a cool 31.4% (17 of 54) shooting for the night.

“We really need this,” said Marquette coach Todd Hopkins, his team now 8-10, 1-4 in the T-C. “We played well for three quarters against Marmion and that carried over for us tonight, and that’s really good to see. We still have work to do, but we’re playing better basketball and the way they competed, the way we rebounded, our defense was good … but the game is slowing down a little for them right now. We’re starting to gel a bit.

“And did it without (No. 2 scorer Griffin Dobberstein) for half the game (with fouls) … Alec obviously had a good night, but (Lucas) Craig, that was his best effort this year. (Marcus) Baker and (Jaxon) Rix both had good games. It shows we have some depth with the guys that stepped up and did their jobs.”

Neither team got out of the box well, but in the second period, a deuce by Craig and an inside bucket by Blayden Cassel broke a 17-17 tie and put the Cru up for good. Novotney’s trey with 51.2 seconds left widened the gap to 24-19 at the break.

A basket by Mason Ross (nine points) pulled the visitors to within 26-21 before the roof fell in.

After he missed a leaning 15-footer early in the third, Novotney was unstoppable. Two free throws and then six straight makes – the last a 3 with 1:21 showing – gave the hosts a 43-26 edge through three quarters.

His 3-pointer to start the fourth capped the deciding 20-4 Crusader scoring burst.

Meanwhile, things just got worse for St. Bede (7-11, 1-3). Kaden Nauman, who led them with 10 points, had to leave the game with an injury while the Cru finished the latter two periods shooting 68.1% (15 of 22).

“We figured we were 8 for 30 from the field and 0 for 6 from the line in the first half and we were still in the game,” St. Bede coach Brian Hanson said. “We played a nice first half of defense, we just couldn’t get anything going offensively. We weren’t finishing and we’re not shooting well – it’s like there was a lid on the hoop.

“And then of course Novotney went off. He’s just a heckuva talent in everything he does. We thought holding him to 10 points in the first half was pretty good, but he obviously went off in the second half. We switched some things up, he hit bombs and we had to get out of zone … They just had our number, hands down.”

Next up for St. Bede is a trip to Manlius for a 7 p.m. clash with Bureau Valley, while Marquette is off until Friday when it hosts Putnam County at 7 p.m. at Bader.