MMCRU took the court against Marquette Catholic on Wednesday March 11 at Casey’s Center in Des Moines. The Royals won the opening tip, but a bad pass underneath gave the ball to Marquette and was converted. The Royals went up 3-2 on an Eli Schlenger outside shot. The Royals used high pressure to keep Mohawks from setting up offense. The Royals play took them to an 8-4 lead in the first but a 3 closed the gap. The teams traded 2-pointers down to a Royals’ time out at 2:26 when the Royals fell behind 11-10 following a Jsoh Peterson blocked shot that was batted to a Royal that was taken away by a Mohawk for an easy 2.
Coming in off the TO Marquette scored a deep outside 3. The Royals got an inside 2 that was answered by Marquette. A bad pass turned it over the Marquette. A steal by Schmillen took it all the way but it didn’t fall. A battle for rebounds kept up ending with it finally going out of bounds off Royals. The quarter ended with a Mohawk lead, 16-12. Marquette inbounded to open the second and failed to score. A missed MMCRU shot was headed back to Marquette’s basket but they threw it away. The Royals couldn’t convert. The Mohawks went to the line too often and made it work for them. At 4:58 to go in the second Marquette had a 21-12 lead.
A bad Marquette pass was recovered by the Royals who converted but were matched by the Mohawks. The Royals scored again, but really struggled to get the ball to fall. The Royals were getting second chances on good rebounding, but that was inconsistent at this point in the game…