Basketball

2023-2024 VARSITY SCHEDULE & SCORE

DATE TIME-VARSITY* LOCATION OPPONENT   SCORE
11/21 6:00 PM Roxana Tournament EAWR W 58-37
11/22 11:00 AM Roxana Tournament Gateway Legacy L 66-47
11/24 5:00 PM Roxana Tournament Freeburg W 61-58
11/25 TBA Roxana Tournament Gibault W 58-35
12/2 7:00 HOME Mater Dei W 51-49
12/05 7:30 PM AWAY Fr. McGivney 56-32
12/08 7:30 PM HOME MELHS    
12/09 3:00 PM McKendree University MICDS (Southern IL Shootout)    
12/12 7:30 PM HOME Christ our Rock Lutheran    
12/13 7:30 PM HOME St. Louis Priory    
12/15 7:30 PM HOME Maryville Christian    
12/22
5:30 PM
HOME  Roxana    
12/27 12:30 PM Columbia Tournament Waterloo    
12/27 3:30 PM Columbia Tournament Freeburg    
12/28 2:00 PM Columbia Tournament Franklin City (KY)    
1/02 7:30 PM HOME Hillsboro    
1/05 7:30 PM AWAY Granite City    
1/09 7:30 PM AWAY Belleville Althoff    
1/10 7:30 PM AWAY Bunker Hill    
1/12 7:30 PM HOME Fr. McGivney    
1/13 TBA AWAY Litchfield Invitational    
1/16 TBA AWAY Litchfield Invitational    
1/19 TBA AWAY Litchfield Invitational    
1/20 TBA AWAY Litchfield Invitational    
1/30 7:30 PM AWAY MELHS    
2/02 7:30 PM AWAY Christ our Rock Lutheran    
2/06 7:30 PM AWAY Maryville Christian    
2/09 7:30 PM HOME Belleville Althoff    
2/13 7:30 PM HOME Civic Memorial    
2/15 7:30 PM HOME Gibault Catholic     
 
*JV Plays at 6PM unless noted.
 

2023 -2024 VARSITY ROSTER

# PLAYER POSITION HEIGHT CLASS
0 Isaiah Redd G 5'8" 10
1 Jaylen Cawthon G 5'11" 12
2 Braden Kline G 6'3" 12
3 Sean Williams G 6'1" 12
4 Boden Fraley G 5'11" 10
10 Jaden Rochester F 6'4" 12
12 Jack Rea G 6' 10
15 Noah Menke G 5'10" 10
21 Carson Jones F 6'2" 10
23 Ryan DeClue G 6'2" 12
24 Brody Bechtold F 6'7" 12
34 Kalin McGee F 5'11" 9

2023-24 JV ROSTER

# PLAYER POSITION HEIGHT CLASS
0 Isaiah Redd G 5'8" 10
4 Boden Fraley G 5'11" 10
5 Ele Baggio G 5'7" 9
11 Cameron Golike G 5'11" 10
12 Jack Rea G 6' 10
13 Hubert Allen G 5'9" 9
15 Noah Menke G 5'10" 10
20 Camden Daniels G 5'8" 9
21 Carson Jones F 6' 10
32 Logan Anderson F 5'11" 9
34 Kalin McGee F 5'11" 9
 

2023 - 2024 FRESHMAN ROSTER 

# PLAYER POSITION HEIGHT
  Logan Anderson F 5'10"
  Elias Aderibigbe C 5'11"
  Hubert Allen F 5'9"
  Eli Baggio G 5'7"
  Chase Pruitt F 5'7"
  Caden Ontis G 5'6"
  Ryan Hubert F 5'7"
  Camden Daniels F 5'8"
  Ethan McLeod G 5'8"
  Gus Koeller G 5'8"
  Joey Wacher F 5'8"
  Joshua Reynolds G 5'6"
  Daelen Marshall C 5'11"
  Simon Waters C 6'

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

 

Explorers Win Regional Title Over Pana Thanks To Big Outing From Rochester
Explorers Win Regional Title Over Pana Thanks To Big Outing From Rochester
LITCHFIELD – “We had three goals this year: 20 wins, win conference, and win a regional,” Marquette Catholic senior Parker Macias said.

 

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.

 

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

 

Braden Kline goes on a fast break Friday night against Christ Our Rock. He finished the game with a team-high 15 points.
Braden Kline goes on a fast break Friday night against Christ Our Rock. He finished the game with a team-high 15 points.

 

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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Marquette's 'great response' knocks out Freeburg at Hoopsgiving

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

 
  •  
ROXANA – Before the Centralia Orphans would take down Gateway Legacy Christian in the Hoopsgiving Classic championship game Saturday night, Marquette was celebrating third place.

“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.”

The Thanksgiving run at Roxana ended on a high note, with the Explorers beating the Freeburg Midgets 63-55 in Milazzo Gym in the third-place game in the second annual 12-team Hoopsgiving tourney.

“It’s a big win,” Marquette senior Kendall Lavender said. “Freeburg and Centralia, they’re both good teams. We came out on Freeburg and had a good run at the beginning. They punched us in the mouth and we came out after halftime and hit them back.”

Marquette’s haymakers staggered the Midgets in the first and third quarters. The Explorers knocked down five 3-pointers, including three from Braden Kline, in the first quarter and had Freeburg down 18-3 before settling for a 24-11 lead at the period’s end.

With Marquette cooling from the arc, the Midgets battled back to get within 32-27 at halftime.

“We punched them, they punched back,” Best said. “We’re a team that can get hot at any moment and we were lucky enough to get hot at the beginning. And in the third quarter, we got hot again.”

Kline, a 6-foot-3 junior representing the Explorers on the all-tourney team, scored nine in both the first and third quarters to finish with a team-high 18 points.

“These guys are tough,” Best said. “They know we’re going to have these runs all year long. And whether it’s good or bad, they’re not going to quit. Freeburg, kudos to them, they fought back and went on a run, too.”

But the 2-2 Midgets, who have lost their last seven games vs. Marquette since beating the Explorers in a holiday tourney in December 2015, could not survive the Explorers’ 17-3 run to open the third quarter.

“It’s a great response,” Lavender said. “It shows a lot of heart and perseverance and fight in our guys.”

Kline’s 3-pointer, his fourth of the game, on the opening possession of the second half sparked the surge that included Lavender getting active on the offensive boards and ended with Kline finding Jaden Rochester open for a basket that put Freeburg down 49-30 with 2:50 left in the third quarter.

“We talked about at halftime how we had only one offensive rebound,” Best said of Lavender's work on the boards. “He’s one of those guys, if I need somebody to go get a rebound, it’s going to be Kendall Lavender. He took that to heart, that’s what he does. He’s our tough guy.”

The 6-3 Lavender scored 15 points and was one of four Explorers in double figures.

“I just try to do whatever I need to do to help our team win,” Lavender said. “Tonight, offensive rebounds and being on the glass was one way because we knew how good Freeburg can rebound.”

Kline’s 18 points left him with a scoring average of 21 a game in the tourney. Marquette's Jack Spain scored 14 points and senior point guard Parker Macias scored 11 points, including 10 in the first half before taking the lead in withstanding Freeburg’s full-court pressure in the fourth quarter.

With the Midgets selling out to attack the ball, the Explorers discovered Spain. The 6-5 senior scored eight points in the fourth quarter, all coming on uncontested layups after hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the first half.

Freeburg got a game-high 23 points from junior all-tourney pick Cole Stuart, who scored 11 points in the final quarter and finished with four 3-pointers. Caleb Weber scored 17 points and Bryson Browning chipped in seven for the Midgets.

Marquette opens at home on Tuesday against a Highland team coming off a 3-1 week at the Effingham St. Anthony Tournament.

“It’s good to be 3-1, but we always want to be better,” Lavender said. “We’ll go back, clean up a few things and be ready for Highland on Tuesday.”

HEAD COACH

best
Cody Best

ASSISTANT
COACHES

Brad Kline

JV COACH

David Golike

 

FRESHMAN COACH

Terry Peek
 
 

REGIONAL TITLES* SECTIONAL TITLES**

2010-2011 (25-8)*
2011-2012 (28-3)*
2012-2013 (21-9)
2013-2014 (22-7)* 3A
2014-2015 (18-12)
2015-2016 (21-10)*
2016-2017 (30-4)**
2019-2020 (26-7)*
2020-2021 (7-7)*

2021-2022 (19-13)* 2022-2023 (21-13)* 

 

 

ROXANA HOOPSGIVING TOURNAMENT:

2022- 3rd Place

all tourney team
Junior Braden Kline | All Tournament Team

HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT CHAMPS:

2011-2012
Lebanon, Columbia, & Litchfield
2012-2013
Columbia
2013-2014
Pittsfield & Columbia
2015-2016
MELHS, Columbia, & Sparta
2016-2017
MELHS, Columbia, & Sparta
2017-2018
MELHS, Columbia

20 WIN SEASONS:

1984, 1986, 1995, 1996, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022

30 WIN SEASONS:

2018

SENIOR NIGHT | 2023-24

Gallatin Awards | 2023

Parker Macias | 110 Percent
Kendall Lavender | Free Thows
Braden Kline | MVP

Okawville Invitational | 2023

Braden Kline - All Tourney Team

Telegraph Player of the Year

Braden Kline 2022-23
Owen Williams 2021-22

Gateway Metro All Conference 2022-23

All-Conference Team
Parker Macias
Braden Kline
 
Honorable Mention
Kendell Lavendar

Gateway Metro All Conference 2021-22

1st Team
Parker Macias
Owen Williams
 
Honorable Mention
Brody Hendricks

QND Shootout

Parker Macias | MVP | 2021-22
Columbia Tournament | 2021 | 2nd Place
1st Place
MELHS Turkey Day Tournament
Nick Hemann | Tournament MVP
Chris Hartrich | Tournament Team
Alton Telegraph Small-School Players of the Year - 2019

Prairie State All Conference 2019

1st Team
Nick Hemann
Chris Hartrich
 
Honorable Mention
Cortez Harris
spirit shop

Steve Medford
MOST MEMORABLE WINS

  1. 2017 Nashville Sectional Championship
  2. 2013 Alton Jersey Tournament
  3. 2017 McCluer North @ McCluer North
  4. 2014 Regional Jerseyville
  5. 2019 win over Belleville East and Highland
  6. 2019 Pickneyville in Sectional
  7. 2016 Roxana Regional
  8. 2021 Granite City last game COVID

Steve Medford
200th Win - 9th Season 

Career Record: 257-72 
(2011-20)

2017-2018     (28-0)
Undefeated Regular Season

District 19 IBCA Coach of the Year
2011, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020

Telegraph Coach of the Year
2011, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021

Advantage News Coach of the Year
2017 & 2018