Serena bounces back, grinds out 54-45 win over Marquette

SERENA – The Serena boys basketball team was looking to get back on track in Tuesday night’s contest against Marquette after a frustrating performance last Friday night coming off a solid game the night before.

“I thought we played our overall best defensive game all season last Thursday (in the Little Ten Conference Tournament semifinals) against Hinckley-Big Rock,“ Serena coach Dain Twait said. ”We were in that game and competing, did a pretty good job on their two scorers, but just didn’t make a few open shots down the stretch. Then Friday against Newark (in the third-place game), we just came out flat, weren’t ready to go and showed little toughness.”

Against the Crusaders on Tuesday, the Huskers used a 10-point run spanning the first and second quarters to grab control, then held the Crusaders at arm’s length the rest of the game in posting a 54-45 triumph on Al Stegman Court.

“I feel like H-BR and Marquette are somewhat similar, so we wanted to take Marquette’s two main scorers (Alec Novotney and Griffin Dobberstein) out of the game,” Twait said. “The other challenge I gave the team was: ‘Can we get back to the team we were Thursday?’ ”

After an opening first quarter that saw seven lead changes and the hosts holding a 13-9 lead, Huskers senior Beau Raikes netted eight of his game-high 20 points in the second quarter, while Marquette hit just 2 of 11 shots. The hosts led 23-13.

Marquette (14-13) was able to cut the deficit to seven midway into the third on a Marcus Baker rebound hoop, but Serena responded with a layup from Hendrix Johnson, a drive by Payton Twait and a pair of free throws from Blake Hjerpe to push the margin heading to the fourth to 34-23.

Serena (15-14) extended its advantage to as many as 14 points in the final quarter.

After Raikes – who also grabbed six rebounds, four steals and three blocks – Payton Twait had 13 points and three rebounds, Johnson eight points and four rebounds, and Hjerpe seven points and six rebounds.

Serena finished 12 of 26 (46%) from the field and 29 of 48 from the free-throw line — including 16 of 29 in the final eight minutes.

“We ran a lot of set plays offensively, but pretty good offense nonetheless, but didn’t shoot as well from the line as we need to,” Coach Twait said. “Then we also had our best player play another really solid game for us. Beau didn’t have his best game last Friday, but he sure came ready to go tonight.”

Marquette — which finished 15 of 56 (27%) from the floor but won the rebound battle 33-30 — was led by 15 points, six rebounds, four assists and three steals from Novotney. Matthew Graham sank a trio of 3-pointers for nine points, Dobberstein added seven points, and Luke McCullough grabbed a game-best eight rebounds.

“You have to give Dain and his team credit. They played a good game tonight,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We’ve been playing pretty good basketball the last few weeks, but we took a step back tonight. They had a good game plan against us.

“We just didn’t get the ball where it needed to go often enough on the offensive end, and when we did, we didn’t look for openings in the post or skip passes to the weak side. We were just overall too tentative tonight.”

Both teams are back in action Friday, with Serena hosting Earlville in the Little Ten and Marquette traveling to play Dwight in a Tri-County Conference contest.