Alec Novotney’s milestone, third quarter lift Marquette past Henry-Senachwine

OTTAWA – The fact that the Marquette Crusaders to the last man treated Friday night’s matchup against Henry-Senachwine like just another game was exactly the reason that it became just another win.

And that was in spite of its special meaning for Ashton Grady, Charlie McGrath, Jaxon Rix and – perhaps most of all – Alec Novotney.

It was not only senior night in Bader Gym for Grady, McGrath and Rix, all of whom started, but the Cru’s 60-40 Tri-County Conference victory over the Mallards was also a huge night for Novotney.

The junior sharpshooter popped in 22 points to end the contest with exactly 1,000 points for his career with the Crusaders.

His last bucket of the night – a 15-foot jumper from the left side of the lane with 3 minutes, 51 seconds left – put him in elite company on the school’s all-time list topped, of course, by the legendary Bob Guyette’s 2,009 career points from 1968-71.

Novotney joins Guyette, Kevin McCormick (1,353), Tim Bailey (1,117), Ed Schaibley (1,085), Marty Brown (1,072) and Jim McGrath (1,028) as the only 1,000-point scorers in Marquette boys basketball history.

“I knew before the game how many I needed and tried not to think about it, but my teammates on the sideline were always reminding me how many to go,” Novotney said with a smile. “We just went out there and played our game, and if it happens, it happens.

“I’m glad we played well and it came in a win. We’ve been playing well together lately, pushing each other and playing good defense. That’s what we have to do to win.”

Griffin Dobberstein tossed in nine points, Rix eight, Marcus Baker six (with seven rebounds) and Lucas Craig five for MA (14-12, 4-3 TCC), which used an 11-3 rebounding edge in the third quarter to win the period 21-13 and turn their 10-point halftime lead into a 23-point edge early in the fourth.

Carson Rowe tossed in a team-best 13 points for the Mallards, who struggled to 16 turnovers, 30% shooting (12 of 40) and a 39-22 deficit on the boards as they fell to 5-18, 0-6 in the league.

A pair of Novotney 3s put the Cru on top 15-6 in the first quarter, and his seven points helped them stretch that to 23-9 midway through the second.

But after a 3-pointer by Wyatt Wealer cut the home lead to seven, Marquette muscled up on the glass and, over the next three minutes, reeled off a 10-1 streak on buckets by Rix, Dobberstein, Craig and Novotney, whose triple took the margin to 44-26.

But in the fourth, the crowd’s attention was on Novotney’s chase of the milestone.

“I honestly don’t know if the kids knew, because I didn’t tell many people,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We just ran our normal plays, and if it happened tonight, great, but if it didn’t, it was going to happen sooner or later. It was inevitable.

“He’s a good ballplayer, a very unselfish player, a very special player, and we’re happy for him. … Our three seniors played well, too. They earned the start, and with them in there we didn’t miss a beat.

“We turned a corner a couple weeks ago, but while we’re getting better, we have to keep improving if we’re going to be ready for the regional in three weeks.”

The emotion of the night was not lost on Mallards coach Randy Westerdahl, who felt his young club gave as good as they got throughout, despite the score.

“It was a tough situation for us, and I know we lost by 20, but I thought our kids really came through,” Westerdahl said. “For three sophomores and two juniors, I was really proud of the toughness they displayed. Marquette was very physical with us, but I thought today was one of the first times this season that we played physical back.”