The Marquette boys basketball team held a three-point lead entering the second half of Thursday’s game at Newark.

The Crusaders, after a few halftime adjustments, opened the opening three minutes of third quarter on an 8-0 run, part of a 16-4 period advantage, and eventually posted a 56-41 victory over the host Norsemen.

For Marquette (14-5), it was its third straight win and eight in its last 10 games, while Newark fell to 11-9.

“This a very tough place to play with the fans pretty much right on top of you. I feel like with the smaller floor and Newark’s press we got way too sped up in the first half,” Marquette junior guard Griffin Dobberstein said. “At halftime the talk was mostly about just getting ourselves slowed down and that the first four minutes of the third quarter were going to be very important.

“I felt like we played with more calmness in the third quarter and our defense really picked things up. We found our rhythm on both ends of the floor coming out of halftime. Our big guys really played well tonight.”

Marquette led 17-15 after one quarter and 29-26 at halftime. Lucas Craig and Luke McCullough opened the third with hoops before Dobberstein sliced to the hoop for a pair of scores. Later Alec Novotney swished a pair of 3-pointers, the second from about 30 feet, to give the visitors a 45-30 margin heading to the fourth.

Doberstein led Marquette with 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists. Novotney added 13 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, McCullough had 10 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, while Craig posted eight points and five rebounds. Blayden Cassel chipped in seven points and five rebounds.

Marquette hit 22 of 57 (39%) from the field, including 7 of 17 from the arc, and held a lopsided 47-22 advantage in rebounds, 16 coming on the offensive end.

“We talked at halftime about how we couldn’t play [Newark 6-6 center Cody Kulbartz] defensively the way we were playing behind him. We played behind in the first half but switched things up to front him in the second half,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “[Newark point guard Reggie Chapman] is a tough matchup and he’s going to get to the basket, but the key to slowing down both (Kulbartz) and (Chapman) is having good help side defense. Our help side in the second half was a big key for us.

“We’ve talked all season about controlling the boards and I thought we did that well tonight. I was also happy with how in the fourth quarter we did a good job of spreading the floor offensively, worked the ball and made good decisions to keep it a double-digit lead.”

Chapman led Newark with 19 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, while Kulbartz finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

The Norsemen end the night making 21 of 51 (41%) of their shots, but just 1 of 18 from 3-point range.

“At halftime we were exactly where I wanted us to be and the pace was what I wanted it to be,” Newark coach Kyle Anderson said. “We didn’t shoot the ball great and missed on a few other opportunities to score and were still only down three.

“But hey, Marquette is a very good team with size and strength in the paint and a pair of guards that are really talented overall. They made some defensive adjustments, and we didn’t adjust to them. We just didn’t score in the third, so we weren’t able to pressure and keep the pace the same as it was in the first half. Marquette was able to slow things down and we just couldn’t keep them off the glass.”

Newark is back in action on at Morris on Monday. Marquette is scheduled to open Tri-County Conference Tournament play on Monday at 7 p.m.