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Marquette Moves Past Kirkwood to District Title Game
Twelve years ago this month, a deep and talented Marquette squad led by future SLU Billiken star John Redden won their 20th game on their way to the district finals and subsequent championship before bowing out in the
 sectional round of the state playoffs. After a dozen seasons of waiting and wondering when their turn would come again, the Mustangs have returned to the district title game on the basis of a hard-fought, comeback victory against familiar conference-opponent Kirkwood by the count of 46-43. Tonight’s semi-final game against the Pioneers marked the two teams’ third meeting of the season (both previously won by Marquette). However, since the last meeting back in early January, Kirkwood had ripped off 11 wins in their past 14 contests. Early on, it looked as if the Pioneers would continue on their recent run of victories as they nailed a long trey from the head of the key on their first possession and followed that in short order with an easy inside lay-in. The Mustangs matched Kirkwood buckets with a medium-jumper from Chad Haley and a put-back by Andy Rosburg off consecutive offensive boards by the 6-7 senior. When Haley was able to hit a couple of free throws, the Mustangs had taken a 6-5 lead. Baskets by McKeon and two more from Haley moved the Mustang lead out to 12-8 before three careless turnovers to end the quarter allowed Kirkwood to close the lead to 12-11 after a period. After two misses and a Kirkwood basket, Haley was able to hit again (Chad had 10 of his team’s 14 first-half points) to again give the Mustangs the lead. At that point though, the #3-district seed Marquette offensive attack ground to a standstill. The half ended with 0/4 shooting to go along with no trips to the foul line and four turnovers to boot. Fortunately, the style of play was befitting of two Suburban West teams meeting multiple times. The #2 seed Pioneers were having more luck offensively than MHS, but not by much. Three Kirkwood baskets came during the Mustang drought and when the teams headed to their respective lockers, Marquette trailed it 19-14. The Mustang offensive woes reached 11 possessions in the second half before Eric Phillips was able to pry the lid off the basket with a driving lay-in. Before Eric converted, Marquette was facing its biggest deficit at seven points, trailing it 21-14. While the flood-gates didn’t exactly come down, the flow was appreciably more noticeable for the Mustangs on their offensive end. Two more offensive boards by Rosburg resulted in a 1/2 performance from the free throw line by Andy (Rosburg finished with 13 boards on the evening). Ky McKeon stepped up when his team needed him by draining a long three from the left baseline to bring his team to within a point. Kirkwood answered with one of their five three-pointers to again move up by four. Phillips again took the ball aggressively to the hole and by the time Haley had a 1/2 result from the line and another driving mid-range jumper just before the buzzer, Marquette had turned the seven-point deficit into two trailing it 27-25 heading into the final quarter. A trend was beginning to develop about half-way through the third quarter that would be key for the Mustangs. MHS committed its next-to-last turnover at about the 4:30 mark of the third. A lone ballhandling miscue would mar what would be an otherwise flawless offensive performance the rest of the contest. Haley opened up the fourth with two free throws and another jumper to put his team up by two. Another Pioneer three-pointer brought the red-clad KHS section to its feet celebrating the return of the lead to their favorites. Rosburg was able to convert from the left block after great team ball movement and a slick dish from Phillips. McKeon took the ball strong to the hoop on the next possession and the Mustangs again led the contest by a point. Three of the next four trips came up empty though and Kirkwood with its talented youngsters beginning to assert themselves in the Mustangs’ offensive mini-slump, regained the lead to lead it by four with just under three minutes to play. Haley, at that point, began to put his stamp on the game. With the score bouncing back and forth between the two rivals, Chad began his many late-game treks to the charity stripe. In going for a game-high 27 points, Haley 10/10 from the line in the final two-plus minutes of the contest (he finished with a remarkable 15/16 performance from the line). At least two of those times Chad stepped to the line he did so with his team trailing only to put the Navy and Kelly back on top. Chad’s next two-shot conversion put the Mustangs up by one with just under a minute to play. Kirkwood was able to push the ball up through Marquette pressure though to draw a foul. The first shot would not go down though and Chad grabbed the ball in a position to again gain contact from his opponent. Two more free throws put the Mustangs up three. A Kirkwood trey would go astray and Chad finished off the remarkable late-game free throw shooting with two more to put his team up by five. A late Kirkwood bucket combined with a final Andy Rosburg free throw were enough to send the Mustangs onto the aforementioned and long-awaited date in the Class 5 District #5 championship game. Marquette will meet yet another Suburban West foe in Parkway South. The co-champs of the SWC and top-seed of the district defeated the Mustangs just a couple of weeks ago 69-62 in double-overtime on the Patriot home floor. The title tilt will tip-off Friday, February 22 at 6:00pm at CBC. Leading Scorers: Chad Haley-27, Andy Rosburg-8, Ky McKeon-7. Leading Rebounders: Rosburg-13, Haley-5. Leading Assists: Eric Phillips-3, Chris Rosehill-3. HARD HAT AWARD WINNER: Chad Haley. For complete stats-click HERE For an audio re-play of the game courtesy of prepcasts.com-click HERE
Posted by: marquettemustangs
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