With two seconds remaining in the third quarter, the Marquette boys basketball team stole back the momentum from host Henry-Senachwine and held on to it for good in Friday’s Tri-County Conference game at John C. Anderson Court.

After the Mallards’ Carson Rowe sank a 3-pointer to pull his team to within five points with 25 seconds left in the quarter, the Crusaders’ Luke McCullough scored a layup 10 seconds later.

Then, after a H-S turnover with two ticks left, Griffin Dobberstein tossed a 50-foot pass to McCullough, who jumped and in one motion caught and passed to Alec Novotney for a layup at the buzzer.

Marquette (20-7, 7-1) then went on to outscore the hosts 19-4 in the fourth quarter to post a 64-40 victory.

The Crusaders have now reached the 20-win mark four of the last five seasons.

“That wasn’t a set play,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said of the final hoop of the third. “That’s just those guys being on their own and understanding the situation. There was something we wanted to do but it wasn’t there, and they adjusted and made the play. That was just them being basketball players.”

“Griffin just threw it my way, and I went up and got it,” McCullough said. “As I was getting ready to jump for the ball, I saw Alec cutting down the floor out of the corner of my eye. I knew I was going to pass it to him. I just told myself to catch the ball first.”

Novotney finished with a game-high 21 points, including five 3s, five rebounds and eight assists. McCullough had 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and a pair of blocks. Lucas Craig ended with 12 points, Dobberstein six points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals, and Blayden Cassel five points and a game-best 14 rebounds.

“We didn’t have our hands up on shooters in the first half and they converted a lot of those looks, but we made those adjustments after halftime,” Hopkins said. “Defensively we wanted to play team defense on Rowe because he is a very, very good player and I thought Lucas and Grif did a good job on him with great help from everyone else.”

Marquette - which led 10-9 after one quarter, 26-20 at halftime and 45-36 heading to the fourth - hit 27 of 66 [41%] from the field and boasted a huge 51-31 margin on the boards, including 25 on the offensive end.

“We wanted to push the ball up the floor tonight and really take the ball to the basket as strong as we could,” McCullough said. “We also, really every game, really wanted to get every rebound we could, offensive or defensive. I felt like we did pretty good with both of those things.

“I feel like we are really clicking as a team right now. Everyone understands the role they have and are doing it.”

Henry-Senachwine (15-12, 3-5) - which shot just 15 of 54 [28%] from the floor - was led by nine points each from Wyatt Wealer (five rebounds) and Carson Rowe (12 rebounds), while Jacob Miller added eight points.

“You’re absolutely right, that was a huge play,” H-S coach Randy Westerdahl said of the final basket of the third. “We fell asleep, didn’t have our head on a swivel and they took advantage. It was a great play by them, but we also have to defend that better. Those types of plays have been a big talking point for us all season. We’ve just had way too many lapses like that. That was a huge momentum swing, and we just weren’t able to get the momentum back.

“They really wore us down with all the screens they set and having to have a body on their bigs. Sometimes we did, sometimes we didn’t or Novotney would hit a 3. They aren’t a great matchup for us, but we didn’t do a lot of little things that we needed to do to beat a very good team, and they all added up as the game went along.”

Marquette is right back in action Saturday morning taking on Morris at the Indian Creek Shootout. H-S at Calvary Christian Academy in Normal on Thursday.