Big things are expected this season from Seneca junior guard Graysen Provance, the top returning scorer and one of just a handful of varsity letterwinners back for the Fighting Irish.

After dropping a game-high 21 points in Monday’s season-opening, 41-28 win over Marquette Academy, though, even the team’s leading guard couldn’t stop praising the work of her teammates in the paint – especially on the boards.

“[Our post players] work so hard down there, even in practice. I feel like they just grab everything,” Provance said. “Tessa [Krull, Seneca’s 5-11 senior post] was that girl down there who just got every rebound today. There was no getting past her.”

Krull didn’t get every rebound, but at times it felt like either she or her fellow Fighting Irish post players did. Seneca (1-0) outrebounded the height-challenged Crusaders (0-1) by a 50-24 margin, with Krull’s 14 rebounds, Brynlee Hunt’s 10, seven from Camryn Stecken, six courtesy of Elsa Douglas and Kylee Rowley’s five leading the way.

“We’re in a situation where we don’t have a lot of size, which you can see,” Marquette coach Eric Price said, “and we’ve had more than five girls at a practice one time so far. So I thought this [tournament] might be tricky, especially early on as we try to figure out who falls into what position, what spot, stuff we do well, stuff we need to work on. ...

“But we got killed on the glass. That’s got to be more of an effort for everybody to go rebound, with our size especially.”

The Crusaders got off to a pretty good start, scoring the night’s initial five points before Seneca shook off some first-game jitters and tied it midway through the opening quarter. The first period ended tied 8-8, but as the second quarter played out, the Fighting Irish – sparked by their rebounding advantage leading to second-, third- and fourth-chance points – began to pull away, leading 19-13 at the half and 32-22 through three quarters.

“We were a little rusty,” Seneca coach Josh Myers said, “and it’s a lot faster paced at the varsity level. We have a lot of girls who didn’t play varsity last year, and it took a while to get used to that ... but we started executing a little better late.

“It’s early, but our effort was outstanding. That’s all we were really worried about was our effort, and then we’ll execute better throughout the year.”

The Irish opened the fourth quarter on a 9-1 run that iced things, Provance scoring five straight of those points over a 20-second span early in the period on a 3 from the corner and, after a steal, a ridiculous circus shot through heavy traffic in the lane. Asked about it after the game, even she wasn’t sure how she made the contorting, contested jumper.

“I remember after the shot thinking, ‘How did that go in?’ ” Provance said with a smile. “I looked at my teammates, and I was just confused, but happy. Very happy.”

Provance’s finished with 21 points and five steals.

For Marquette, Kaitlyn Davis picked up where she left off last season with a 17-point, eight-rebound, three-assist, six-steal performance – all team-highs. Madison Kozlowski added thee points, seven rebounds and four steals, with Emily Ryan-Adair contributing four points and a trio of steals.

“Overall, I’m happy with how we played,” Price said. “It’s going to be a struggle scoring sometimes for a little while, but we played hard. That’s all I can ask.”