Traverse City, MI – December 17, 2022 – The Marquette Redmen boys basketball team was in Traverse City for the second
consecutive day to take on a potential district opponent, this time in the form of the Traverse City West Titans. But for the second consecutive day, the 2nd half doomed the Redmen, dropping the contest 59-43.
Marquette got off to a great start scoring the first five points of the ball game. A Wyatt Lakenen three pointer and layup gave him and the Redmen the first 5 points of the game, and Marquette would go on to score the first 7. Traverse City West was able to claw back into it thanks to Ben Habers with a 5-0 run himself. TC West would gain their first lead of the game thanks to a Quinten Gillespie triple, which would a theme of the afternoon. The Titans would take an 18-16 lead into the second quarter.
Early in the second quarter Marquette’s Kyler Sager tied things up with a layup. On the other end, Marquette’s Wyatt Lakenen got hit with a technical foul which sent Gillespie to the line where he hit both free throws to give TC West back the lead. But Marquette, led by Easton Clements four points, was able to outscore 8-4 the rest of the second quarter to take a 26-24 lead into the locker rooms.
For the second game in a row, the 2nd half of the game is where things took a turn for the worse for the Redmen. Gillespie hit his first of four triples in the quarter to kick things off for the Titans. Marquette battled for a bit, and took their final lead of the ball game with a Jack Quinnell bucket 38-37. But with Gillespie hitting 3 more threes, and Winslow Robinson adding one, TC West ballooned their lead to 8 after 3 quarters – ending the quarter on a 9-0 run.
The Titans’ run stretched into the fourth quarter. After a Jacob MacPhee bucket finally stopped the bleeding, the Titans had rattled off 15 straight. Marquette mustered just 5 points in the final eight minutes.
Marquette was led by Jaxon Jurmu’s 13 points, while Jack Quinnell added 10. TC West’s Quinten Gillespie led all scorers with 19.
