Marquette’s late rally falls short to TCC champ Roanoke-Benson

OTTAWA – The Marquette girls basketball team trailed Roanoke-Benson by 18 points in the final minute of the third quarter in Thursday’s Tri-County Conference finale at Bader Gymnasium.

The Crusaders then mounted a huge rally, cutting the deficit to three on two occasions in the final two minutes.

But the regular-season champion Rockets were able to counter each time the hosts pulled close and record a 63-56 victory to extend their winning streak to five games.

Marquette had its four-game winning streak snapped in falling to 20-10 overall and ending 10-4 in league play.

Roanoke-Benson improved to 24-5 and 13-1.

Marquette trailed 17-12 after one quarter and 38-28 at halftime as R-B’s Bri Harms scored 17 of her team-high 23 points and grabbed six of her team-best nine rebounds.

Jordyn Tomlinson’s drive – for two of her 11 points – with one minute remaining in the third gave the visitors a 53-35 lead.

“We didn’t play very well the first three quarters,” said Marquette’s Morgan Nelson, who, along with sister Keely Nelson and Chloe Larson, were honored before the game on senior night. “Going into the fourth quarter we knew if we wanted to get back in the game we were going to have to play as hard as we could. We had to play harder than they were. I thought we did a great job to get close, but just not close enough.”

A drive by Kaitlyn Davis – for two of her game-high 25 points – closed out the third.

Then in the fourth, three free throws by Davis, two steals turned layups by Hunter Hopkins, and consecutive 3-pointers by the Nelson sisters cut the lead to 55-50.

“I was happy I made that one,” Morgan Nelson said. “I’ve been in a bit of a shooting slump, so it was nice to see finally go in.”

After a free throw by Harms, Hopkins drilled a 3 from the left wing to make it 56-53. Three free throws by the Rockets' Callie Kennell were followed by a 3 from Davis.

From there, however, R-B was able to make 4 of 6 free throws around a pair of Marquette missed 3s to close out the victory.

After Davis’ fourth straight game with 20-plus points, Hopkins finished with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists, and Morgan Nelson and Larson six points apiece. Kelsey Cuchra led the Cru with seven rebounds and a blocked shot.

“We’d split the two games with Marquette this season, and the loss was at the conference tournament, and we were without Bri, which really hurt us,” R-B coach Ryan Davis said. His team was 0 for 8 from the field in the final quarter but still finished 22 of 43 (51%) for the game.

“We only have one senior, but we really showed a ton of composure when Marquette cut the lead to three a couple of times.

“Everything these girls do is adding to school history. They had never won 20 games in a season; they had never won a conference championship and never been ranked in [the] state [polls]. They have had goals all season, and they’ve held themselves accountable to reach them. I couldn’t be happier for the season they’ve had, but they deserve all the credit.”

Marquette is now off until playing Thursday at Hall to close out the regular season.