Playing against a team that has been ranked as high as #1 in both the St. Louis metro area and the state of Missouri the season, everyone in the Marquette Athletic Complex knew it would take a Herculean effort by the host team to compete with Webster Groves.  The clock became the number-one foe by the end of the evening as the Mustangs gave the Statesmen all they could handle in a 70-65 Webster victory.

The Mustangs started off well.  After a couple of Chad Haley jumpers sandwiched around a Tom Ahlborn lay-in, the Mustangs claimed their only lead of the game at 6-4.  It was at that point that the bug that seems to infect most Webster opponents bit the Mustangs:  the turnover bug.  Over the course of the next nine-plus minutes extending into the second quarter, MHS coughed up the ball eight times in fourteen possessions.  That limited their shot attempts to only five (of which only one fell through the hoop-a Karlos Washington three-pointer).  By the time the horn sounded ending the opening quarter though, the two teams had seemed to be wrapping up the feeling-out process with Webster leading it 11-9. 

The Statesmen jumped on the hosts early in the second.  Not even a minute-and-a-half into the quarter, the Mustangs had turned it over twice, missed two shots and now trailed 17-9.  It was at that point that MHS began to play basketball as they had most of the rest of the season.  The remainder of the half featured nary a turnover.  After having only been able to muster ten tries from the field after almost 11 minutes of play, Marquette was able to shoot 5/10 down the home-stretch of the second quarter.  Andy Rosburg was able to convert his first points of the game and nailed a second shot less than a minute later.  A Washington three-pointer was followed by another Ahlborn runner and by the time the half ended, the Mustangs trailed 33-24 having been outscored by only a 16-15 margin after the last turnover was committed early in the quarter.

The home team felt fortunate trailing by only nine at the half.  Having had committed eight ballhandling miscues and grabbing a lone offensive board, they felt if they could continue a game might be made of it.  An early Rosburg bucket to start off the second half followed shortly by another Washington three-pointer had the Mustangs thinking this could happen.  After a Skalski put-back and four straight Rosburg free throws (Andy finished 6/6 from the line and the team was a stellar 10/10.  Unfortunately, Webster more than made up point-wise for the Mustangs marksmanship by knocking down 21/34 for the contest.), Marquette was right in the ballgame trailing by eight.  Unfortunately, a cold-shooting spell and a case of the butter-fingers befell the Mustangs.  Three chances to corral either a loose ball or defensive rebound found the ball just evading the reach of the home team.  As a Final Four-contender does, Webster made the Mustangs pay each time.  Two three-pointers and a deuce stretched the Statesmen lead out to 52-35 after three quarters. 

Early buckets in the fourth by Washington and Ahlborn were all well and good, but at the 6:30 mark, the Mustangs were just treading water against Webster.  The Statesmen lead reached nineteen for the second time before MHS made their move.  Four straight buckets ensued.  D’Angelo Wood hit a fifteen-footer from along the right baseline, Washington drove the hoop and D’Angelo grabbed an offensive carom and put-back for a three-point play.  Wood’s heroics were duplicated on the next trip by Will Jones who also grabbed a ball in traffic and laid it in along with a free throw (the Mustangs grabbed seven offensive boards in comparison to their single board on their own end in the first half).  Now trailing by 60-49, time was running out with the game now under four minutes to play.  Another Wood put-back cut the lead to ten.  After Rosburg and Haley makes, Marquette found itself treading water as the Statesmen were finding their way to the free throw line (Webster only made two field goals in the last quarter but hit on 14/24 attempts from the stripe).  A Haley step-back move from 20 feet cut the lead to seven and by the time Ahlborn hit on another driving attempt at the bucket, the lead was down to 65-60.  The Mustangs traded a Rosburg field goal for two Drew Hanlen free throws (the all-state guard hit on 8/10 in the fourth) to remain five down.  After two more Webster conversions from the charity stripe, Haley hit again from deep to pull his team to within three but that was as close as the Mustangs would get as Hanlen hit two more with less than ten seconds to go to put the game away and give his team its 23^rd win of the season.

Trailing twice by almost twenty points and cutting the margin to three at the end against a perennial State contender may be the boost to send the Mustangs on into the post-season.  Time will tell as will a trip to Fox to wrap up the regular-season this Friday, February 16 at 7pm.  District action follows this Monday as the Mustangs will play their first-ever game at the Chaminade gymnasium in the first-round of Class 5 District 4 play.

Leading Scorers:  Andy Rosburg-16, Karlos Washington-15, Chad Haley-14.  Leading Rebounders:  Rosburg-8, D’Angelo Wood-5.  Leading Assists:  Tom Ahlborn-3, Washington-2, Wood-2.  SENIORS PLAYING THEIR FINAL GAME AT THE MAC:  Tom Ahlborn, Will Carpenter, Rick Skalski & Karlos Washington.

For complete game stats-click HERE