The start of the first frame had the Redmen dominating the court, bringing home the first basket. The Redmen quickly took a lead over the Titans 10-5, but lost ground over a slew of fouls, allowing the Titans to gain ground and close the point gap coming out of the first 12-9 Redmen.
Marius Grazulis took over the second quarter putting multiple layups in the basket on the Titans, making for the 10 of the 20 points on the Redmen board, and the Titans unable to put a stop to him. Grazulis played a strong defensive game in the back half, but was removed from the game after a defensive foul on the Titans, this played a part in the loss of momentum of the Redmen, falling behind 8 points into the half 31-23 Titans.
The start of the second half saw the Redmen giving a lot of costly turnovers to Traverse City West helping to solidify the Titans lead by 10 early in the frame. After a lot of back and forth the Redmen could not close the gap despite both teams exchanging baskets, there was a lot of the same with both teams substituting players to end the third with the Redmen trailing behind.
Grazulis took court in the 4th running a rough game, pushing back at the Titans closing the point gap to just two possessions by the final 4 minutes, Grazulis playing with 4 fouls looked to bridge the gap and take lead, but got hammered trying to shoot and was forced to take a seat to avoid the possibility of a defensive foul. The game was very tight coming to the end, when Traverse City fouled allowing Redmen to sink two free throws closing the gap to 5. Grazulis took the court again with a minute 48 on clock and the score down to a single possession 50-48 Titans.
The final moments of the game saw Redmen tie the game with 6.9 seconds on the clock thanks to Luke Ogea, but unfortunately fouled the Titans out to sink 2 free throws and closing out the game 52-50 on a major upset.
Catch the next game as Marquette take on the Gladstone Braves this next Tuesday night, game starts at 7:15PM so catch it on Fox Sports Marquette 105.1 and 99.9 or on the web at foxsportsmarquette.com
LISTEN LIVE – MARQUETTE REDMEN DEFEATED BY TRAVERSE CITY TITANS 52-50.mp3