Explorers Win Regional Title Over Pana Thanks To Big Outing From Rochester

The Explorers already checked the first two boxes and finished off the to-do list Friday night.

Marquette defeated the Pana Panthers by a score of 43-32 in the Class 2A Regional Finals Friday night inside a loud Litchfield High School gym. It is the program’s seventh regional title dating back to 2010.

“It doesn’t get much better than this,” Marquette head coach Cody Best said about winning the regional in his first year at the school.

The Explorers are now 21-12 on the season and advance to the Sectional Semifinals where they’ll take on a tough Teutopolis team. The Wooden Shoes beat Robinson in their Regional Final game by a score of 59-40.

The main storyline of the night was the arrival of junior Jaden Rochester. For the third straight game, he’s scored in double digits. He scored 12 points in the regular season finale against state-ranked Gibault and 12 again against Litchfield in the first round of the playoffs.

Friday night he exploded and scored 17 points against Pana; his career high.

“He’s got that ‘it’ factor,” Best said. “He’s going to get a rebound, block a shot, but everybody believes in him. He’s got all the confidence in the world right now.”

“My teammates are trusting me,” Rochester said. “Sometimes they just need someone to step up and it was just my game to step up.”

“It’s huge,” Macias said about his teammate. “He’s always had it in him. He’s the most athletic guy on the court at all times. Today he played amazing, I’m so proud of the kid.”

Macias called the 6-foot-3 Rochester a “gentle giant”.

Also in double digits was senior Kendall Lavender with 12 points. Senior Jack Spain came off the bench and hit two huge threes in the second quarter, finishing the night with those six points.

Junior Sean Williams and Macias each scored three while senior Braden Kline, the team’s leading scorer, was held to just two points on the night.

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Marquette got off to a good start and was up 10-7 after the first quarter.

Pana’s Devon Peebles hit a three to tie the game at 10 and then another basket to go ahead. This would be the Panthers’ final lead of the night.

Back-to-back baskets from Rochester and Spain’s two three-pointers grew Marquette’s lead to 22-14 at the half.

Pana tried to rally a comeback, but Marquette would not be denied. Rochester scored another five points in the third and Williams made a three to go up 33-20 after three.

Marquette didn’t make a field goal in the fourth quarter but made up for it by shooting a perfect 10-10 from the free-throw line. Those clutch shots turned out to be the difference maker for the Explorers.

They went on to win in front of a huge traveling fan section.

“We knew they were going to travel wherever we go,” Best said about the Blue Crew. “It was like a home game for us and that’s what we needed.”

“It means everything to me,” Macias said about the sea of blue shirts in the stands. “It’s awesome seeing them come support us. Truly, they are the sixth man. It helps us when they’re out there. They bring all the energy, it’s awesome.”

Marquette did their homework, watched the film, and things went pretty much exactly to plan. All year the team has been striving on their defense, and that work is paying off.

“We held them to 32 points, so I’d say we did our job,” Best said. “I’ll take that against anybody.”

The Explorers don’t plan on stopping anytime soon either. They believe they can beat T-Town and keep their season going.

“We’re going to be the underdog no matter who we play but we’ve got all the momentum in the world right now,” Best said.

“We’ve got momentum and we’re confident,” said Macias. “We think we can beat anyone.”

The Sectional Semifinal game against Teutopolis will be played Wednesday, March 1 at 7 p.m. in Newton.

Silver Stallions Shut Down – Explorers Hand Christ Our Rock First Loss Of Season In Exciting Conference Rematch

ALTON – There wasn’t an empty seat in the building Friday night as the Marquette Catholic Explorers boy’s basketball team hosted Christ Our Rock Lutheran in a decisive Gateway Metro Conference game.

The Silver Stallions came into the game undefeated at 23-0 and had won the previous meeting with Marquette handily by a score of 62-47 back on. Jan. 14.

Marquette head coach Cody Best called the last meeting with Christ Our Rock “one of our worst games.” The Explorers had to chase the game the whole way after going down 18-6 after the first quarter.

The second meeting Friday night was the polar opposite.

The Explorers used an exuberant home crowd to hold on to a 40-38 win and tie themselves up at the top in the GMC standings. Both the Silver Stallions and Explorers are now 7-1 in the conference.

It was Christ Our Rock who opened to a 14-10 after the first quarter but the Explorers’ 11-1 run in the second gave them a 21-15 lead heading into the locker room.

Coming back onto the court the teams went back and forth with the Explorers still leading 28-24 through three.

Marquette opened the fourth with a couple of threes, one from Braden Kline and another from Parker Macias. Those shots pushed the Marquette lead to 34-26.

Christ Our Rock stormed back though and tied the game up at 36. It was another three, this time from junior Sean Williams to give Marquette the lead back at 39-36.

“Sean Williams doesn’t usually have the green light, but he had the green light on that one,” Best said jokingly. “He stepped up, he got rebounds for us, and he played his role. That’s all we need him to do.”

A bucket the other way made it 39-38 with just under two minutes remaining in the game.

The Explorers basically passed the ball around and played keep-away instead of trying to increase their lead late in the game. Down a point, the Silver Stallions had no other choice but to start fouling to try and regain possession.

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The fouls sent Macias to the line first shooting one-and-one. He missed, but the Explorers got the rebound and then Kendall Lavender was immediately fouled. He made his first free throw but missed the second. His team was up 40-38, but Christ Our Rock had the ball with 8.7 seconds left on the clock, plenty of time to go the other way and get a shot off.

Off the inbound, instead of going for the tie, the Silver Stallions shot a three for the win, but it didn’t go. As the buzzer sounded it was the ‘Blue Crew’ that stormed the court to celebrate the upset.

“We were able to hang on and control it,” Best said. “We didn’t turn it over as much as we did last time. The last four minutes were huge for us, we just controlled the ball.”

The win brings Marquette to 15-11 on the season, and they really dug deep to get this one.

“We wanted that win a lot,” Kline said who led all scorers with 15 points and five threes. “That’s the number one team in 1A and we just gave them their first loss, it feels great.”

He’s slightly exaggerating. The best Class 1A team is up for debate, but as of the latest Associated Press rankings, the Silver Stallions were ranked No. 3 in Illinois 1A.

Following Kline’s 15 points was Jaden Rochester with 12. Macias and Williams each finished with five while Lavender had four.

The Silver Stallions were led by Parker Boehne with 12 points and Dallas Fair with 10.

It’s worth mentioning that Christ Our Rock had a fairly large fan section as well that made the hour-and-a-half drive from Centralia and made the small Marquette gym louder than ever.

But Marquette fans had this game circled on the calendar and showed out with overfill from the body-to-body student section up on the stage.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” Kline said. “When you can get that many students here to support you, it’s awesome.”

After a long drive to Quincy, the Explorers will be back at home on Tuesday in what will probably be another sell-out crowd for Senior Night.

Marquette will host Maryville Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7.

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Explorers go 3-1, take third place at Roxana Tourney

“We’ll take it,” Marquette coach Cody Best said of a 3-1 tourney performance with the lone defeat coming vs. Centralia. “We definitely got better, but it’s a long season. We’re just four games in. We’re in this for the long run.”