Webster Efficiency Enough to Overcome Mustang Effort

Carrying a three-year plus home-court winning streak into tonight's semi-final of the National Bank/Webster Classic, the Statesmen of Webster Groves certainly could boast of feeling comfortable in their circa-1945 home gymnasium.  That comfort level was tested by the Mustangs, but the streak rolled on in a 60-47 Webster Groves decision.

After two quick and seemingly easy buckets inside the paint, Marquette answered the Statesmen's charge.  An Andy Rosburg lay-in off a nifty D'Angelo Wood feed was quickly followed up by an Eric Phillip lay-up from the Rosburg assist.  Doing what great teams do though, Webster Groves quickly pushed their lead to double-digits on the basis of faulty Mustang ballhandling.  Down 13-4, Marquette finally answered with buckets by Chad Haley and Phillips to cut the lead to 16-8 at the end of a period. 

The Mustangs started hot in the second though.  Wood drove the lane and laid in an easy deuce before Haley hit on a short jumper and senior Ky McKeon converted a put-back off an offensive rebound.  Down 16-14 at that point, the Mustangs looked to be in business.  Two missed free throws and a Mustang turnover later though, Webster had again upped their lead to seven.  That lead though was sliced to two on a long three-pointer by Haley and a lay-up by Rosburg off a great feed from McKeon.  Unfortunately, the last half of the second period saw the Mustangs hit on only 2/8 tries from the field and turn the ball over three more times.  By the time the dust had cleared, another Statesmen run had occurred leaving MHS down 34-23 at the break.

Marquette would not say die though.  The Mustangs shot 5/9 from the field to start the second half and hit on four free throws to trail by only six with a couple of minutes left in the third.  While the Mustangs would only turn the ball over six times total in the second half, three of them unfortunately came all at the tail end of the third quarter.  Webster took advantage of all three converting on three shots to lead 49-37 going into the final period. 

A workmanlike job on the boards in the fourth (four offensive boards and a 22-19 advantage on the night) kept Marquette in the game.  With their last shot going down with just under three minutes to play, MHS trailed by nine but ran out of gas against the opportunistic Webster team.  Although out-rebounding the Statesmen for the game, out-shooting them from inside the arc and shooting more free throws, two key statistics hindered Marquette's efforts.  A 1/10 performance from three-point land and 17 turnovers compared to Webster's even dozen made all the difference.

The Mustangs move into tomorrow's third-place game against Suburban West rival Kirkwood for a 3:00 tip-off.  Preceeding the game at 2pm are the tournament's annual three-point and dunk contests.

Leading Scorers:  Andy Rosburg-14, Chad Haley-13, Eric Phillips-8.  Leading Rebounders:  Phillips-5, D'Angelo Wood-5.  Leading Assists:  Three tied with 2. 

For a complete box score, click HERE

Posted by: marquettemustangs

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