H-BR, Serena win semifinals at Class 1A Marquette Regional

OTTAWA — Exciting small-school basketball was alive and well inside Bader Gymnasium on Wednesday night in the semifinals of the Class 1A Marquette Regional.

In the opener, subsectional No. 2-seeded Hinckley-Big Rock took the lead with five minutes remaining and held on for a 60-53 win over host and No. 7-seeded Marquette. Then in the nightcap, No. 6-seeded Serena used a pair of steals-turned-layups in the final minute to slip past No. 3-seeded Newark and advance to Friday’s 7 p.m. championship game with a 57-52 triumph.

Hinckley-Big Rock 60, Marquette 53

A 3-pointer from the right corner off an inbounds play by Hinckley-Big Rock’s Jacob Orin just under two minutes to play pushed the Royals lead to six.

From there, H-B made 8 of 10 free throws down the stretch to hold off the hard-charging Crusaders.

Martin Ledbetter, who missed the final seven minutes of the second quarter after picking up his third foul, led the Royals with 18 points and 12 rebounds. Max Hintzsche netted eight of his 14 points in the second, while Luke Badal had 10 points and five rebounds.

“Jacob Orin hit a huge 3 for us with about two minutes to go and then picked up a steal which led to a couple of free throws to make it a three-possession game,” said H-BR coach Seth Sanderson, his team now 24-8. “Then we did a great job of knocking down free throws in the final minute (7 of 8) to at least keep it a two-possession game.

“We battled without Martin out there in the second quarter and he and Max Hintzsche did an excellent job down the stretch of keeping everyone clam.”

Marquette (17-16) was led by a game-high 24 points from Alec Novotney, including nine in the fourth quarter. Griffin Dobberstein added 14 points, while Lucas Craig had eight points and four rebounds.

“The key to the game I think was when Ledbetter had to sit the last seven minutes of the second quarter, we just weren’t able to put together a solid run to get the lead at halftime,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “Credit (Orin) for taking and hitting that big shot late in the fourth quarter. It was a big shot, put us down six and really gave them the momentum from there on out.

“I’m very proud of our kids, especially our seniors. We’ve had to deal with a lot of things this season and they just kept battling. I think our future is pretty bright.”

Serena 57, Newark 52

In what was a back-and-forth game throughout, Serena led by two points after a drive by Beau Raikes with under a minute to go before Huskers senior Matt Farrell stole the ball and found Payton Twait for a layup with 26 seconds remaining. Newark then misfired on a 3-pointer and Farrell grabbed the rebound to close out the victory.

Raikes finished with a game-best 16 points and Blake Hjerpe scored all 15 of his points in the final three quarters for Serena (18-15). Twait had 10 points and Hendrix Johnson eight for the Huskers.

“Earlier in the season Matt was disappointed in his role, he thought he needed to be a scorer for us,” Serena coach Dain Twait said. “I told him, look, you’re our screener, our rebounder, our glue guy and guy that takes charges. That’s what we need out of him. He also, like you saw, has the nose for the basketball. That steal was what we needed to finish things off.

“We know (Newark’s point guard Reggie) Chapman makes them go and (Dylan) Long had 37 and 27 points against us in the two previous games. There was no way we were going to let those guys beat us, so we went with a triangle-and-two defense. Our guys did a great job playing a defense that we normally don’t play.

Chapman and Jimmy Kath each had 10 points for the Norsemen (18-14). Long and Payton Wills both provided nine points, while Austin Reibel chipped in eight points.

“(Serena) made some plays down the stretch, plays a team needs to make to survive at this time of the season,” Newark coach Kyle Anderson said. “I’m very proud of my guys tonight. There were a few times where we could have let Serena really extend the lead, but we found ways to come back with a basket or two to get right back in it.

“We struggled to figure out how to attack the triangle-and-two. Sometimes, even really good shooters, when you know you’re going to have space and time you can overthink things. We had many open looks from the arc, but some nights the ball just refuses to go in. We saw that a little bit tonight.”