Boys basketball: Tommy Durdan’s shot lifts Marquette past Serena

OTTAWA – Tommy Durdan didn’t really have a plan when the ball was inbounded to him with 21.5 seconds left in the fourth quarter and his Marquette team tied with visiting Serena. He was just going to adjust on the fly to whatever the Huskers allowed him.

What they allowed him was an open lane to the basket.

After patiently dribbling away half of that remaining time, he finally made his move when the clock hit 10 seconds. With Serena taking away any drive to his right, he broke to his left from the right elbow and over two defenders banked in a running, one-handed shot with three seconds left to give the Crusaders a wild 62-60, come-from-behind victory over the Huskers on Tuesday night at Bader Gym.

The bucket, set up by a couple of huge 3-pointers by Logan Nelson to help erase what was left of a 12-point second-quarter lead for Serena, proved the winner only when a good perimeter look by the Huskers’ Hunter Staton hit both sides of the rim before falling away at the final horn.

“We just wanted to get something going downhill,” Durdan said of the last of his game-best 13 points. “Obviously, you want to turn the corner and get to your right hand, but the defense knows that too, and they took it away. … They switched [defenders], and I saw an opening to my left, got to the hole and made the basket.

“This is a big win against a good team we may see down the road. We didn’t play very well defensively in the first half. Now we know the way we played in the second half is how we have to play against them if that happens.”

Eight players scored for Marquette (21-5) as it took a 19-14 lead, but in the second quarter the Huskers aggressively took the ball to the basket and started converting. Seven points by Carson Baker and six each from Staton and Braxton Hart sparked a 25-10 quarter that opened a 39-27 advantage.

The Crusaders scored the next nine points and got a big 3 from Denver Trainor with 35.4 seconds left in the third to cap a 15-6 MA quarter, getting the hosts within 45-44 heading to the fourth.

But right after Serena lost ace guard Cam Figgins to fouls with 2:58 left, baskets by Tanner Faivre and Bradley Armour quickly made their lead six before Nelson stepped up.

The second of his two clutch 3s, coming with 35.9 seconds left, coupled with a Durdan layup offset a pair of free throws by Hart and knotted the score at 60. A Huskers turnover with 21.5 seconds to go set up Durdan’s winning shot. Serena inbounded the ball to half court and immediately called timeout with 2.6 seconds showing, leading to its final shot attempt.

“It’s disappointing, because we shot ourselves in the foot too many times,” Serena coach Dane Twait said. “We turned the ball over at the end, missed the front of a 1-and-1, missed a layup that would have put us up five, I think, before [Nelson] hit the tying 3. … We had it, but I know, you have to finish it all the way out, and we weren’t able to do that against a good Marquette team.”

Hart ended up with 12 points, Richie Armour 11, Faivre nine, Staton eight, Baker and Bradley Armour seven each and Figgins, who missed much of the contest with foul trouble, six.

For the Cru, Nelson and Griffin Walker each tossed in 10 points and Trainor eight.

Both teams had 12 turnovers, made 22 of 45 shots and shot similarly from the line (MA 11 of 18; Serena 12 of 20).

“Here’s the deal: These are two good, evenly matched teams,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “Look at the scoring, no one player scoring a lot, I’m sure the stats are close, and that’s the way it goes.

“Honestly, I didn’t think we deserved to win this game the way we played the first half, but our kids kept battling, and after chasing 10 at the half, in the third quarter we trimmed it to one, and that was huge. We just did enough at the end to get a win against a good ballclub.”