The Bishop Garrigan boys basketball team battled, but came up three points short in a 58-55 loss to the Marquette Catholic Defenders on Tuesday night at the Casey’s Center in boys class 1A quarterfinal round action.
The Golden Bears fell behind early in the game, trailing 18-11 at the end of the first quarter, at one point in the second were behind 12 on the scoreboard, eventually got back into the game, but were never able to ignite one of their trademark runs to turn the game in their favor.
Bishop Garrigan Coach Mark Meister considered an early timeout, but felt the Golden Bears would work through their struggles.
Trailing 26-14 with 4:55 left in the second quarter, Carter Schwab injected some life into Bishop Garrigan, knocking down three pointers on back to back possessions. After a handful of stops on defense and a pair of layups by Michael Joyce, the Golden Bears had a 10-0 scoring run, and the tally on the scoreboard down to 26-24. As would become a theme throughout the night, the Defenders squelched the Bishop Garrigan momentum, keeping Bishop Garrigan scoreless for the final 2:34 of the half following Joyce’s 2nd layup, and getting a buzzer-beating three pointer by Louis Gonner to cap a 5-0 burst and make the score 31-24 at intermission.
Meister made rebounding the focus of the team’s halftime discussion.
The teams began trading buckets in the third quarter as the offensive production picked up, with the Golden Bears delivering their highest scoring quarter of the night, outpacing Marquette Catholic 19-14 behind a 6-0 spurt over the final three plus minute of the quarter, bringing the Bishop Garrigan deficit back to two points at 45-43.
In the fourth, Joyce buried a three pointer with 3:34 left to tie the game at 50, but the Golden Bears wouldn’t score again for over three minutes, as Marquette Catholic went up 54-50, but left the door open with six missed free throws over the duration of the fourth.
With 22 seconds remaining, Amaury Thomas put back a missed three to cut the Defenders lead to two points, but Gonner drilled two clutch shots from the foul line on the other end, and Justin Severson blocked a Thomas shot that would have gotten the game back to two points. Following a Bishop Garrigan foul, Koen Roeder made two free throws with 6.9 seconds left to effectively put the game on ice.
Gonner says everyone stayed focused to close out the game.
Joyce scored 22, Schwab had 14, and Thomas 10 for Bishop Garrigan, with Schwab and Thomas recording 9 rebounds apiece. Meister says the Golden Bears had to work to get Schwab and Joyce the right opportunities.
Louis Gonner scored 17, Justin Severson recorded 11 points and 15 rebounds, ad Tate Kueter chipped in 11 off the bench, knocking down three of his five three point tries for Marquette Catholic.
Joyce felt the ability of Marquette Catholic’s players to go downhill made things challenging all night for Bishop Garrigan.
Marquette Catholic finished the game shooting 41.3% (19/46 from the field), while going 8/19 on 3s and 12/20 at the free throw stripe. Bishop Garrigan shot 40.4% on field goals, 7/15 on 3s, and 6/9 at the free throw line.
Gonner credited his head coach Isaac Sturm for having the team prepared offensively.
The Defenders were able to neutralize two major categories Bishop Garrigan had excelled in throughout the season: free throws and rebounds. Marquette Catholic took 20 free throw attempts to Bishop Garrigan’s 9, while outrebounding the Golden Bears 36-29. Bishop Garrigan did finish with a 10-5 edge in the turnover battle.
Bishop Garrigan ends their season 23-3, while Marquette Catholic moves to 24-2 and will face MMCRU in the class 1A semifinals on Thursday.
