MARQUETTE — The Marquette Redmen have been dialing up from long distance all season long, but in Wednesday night’s Class A district tournament semifinal against Traverse City Central, they were disconnected.

The Redmen shot an ice-cold 3 of 25 from beyond the arc as they were upset by the Trojans 72-60. Treylon McFerrin led Marquette (20-2) with 16 points, while Preston Briggs and Jordan Vicent both had 17 for the Trojans.

“The bottom line is that we were 3 for 25,” Marquette head coach Brad Nelson said. “Every game we’ve played, we’ve been 35 percent or higher.

“The last two games, we had really good nights and tonight was not the night to have an off one. We got some good looks and those were shots we knock down all the time, but they just didn’t go in.”

The Trojans (7-14) on the other hand, knocked down their open looks and head coach Jeff Turner felt that confidence played a big role in that.

“The kids played really well and they’re feeling confident,” he said. “This is the most confident we’ve been all season. We’re sharing the ball well and we’re looking for the open guy. We’re putting forth the type of effort that we didn’t do at the start of the season.

“We’re now being rewarded for sticking with it. We didn’t have the greatest regular season, but we’re playing well at the right time of the year.

“What impressed me most though is that when Marquette went on that second-half run, we kept our composure. Earlier in the year, we might’ve not held it together, but we did.”

TC Central advances to host TC West in the district championship game on Friday night after the West edged Petoskey 53-51.

On Wednesday, the teams played a back-and-forth first quarter that gave the Redmen a slim 19-18 advantage entering the second.

But Marquette couldn’t maintain that momentum. A bucket by Noah Norton and a layup from Ben McCrary off a nice feed from Tobin Schwannecke gave the Trojans a 35-30 lead at the half.

Central extended its lead in the third quarter with the help of a trey from Vicent and later, the Trojans got back-to-back layups from Briggs and Schwannecke to go up 46-33.

The Redmen put together a rally, though. McFerrin led a 9-0 run, including a nice three-point play, to pull Marquette within four. At the end of the quarter, the Redmen were only down 49-44.

Marquette brought the momentum from that surge into the fourth as a jumper by Ian Ogea and a layup by Alex DuVall cut the Redmen deficit to only two.

However, the Trojans got hot from 3-point land as Vicent and Norton both hit triples and Central made its free throws down the stretch.

“I thought the energy from that first quarter would’ve carried us,” Nelson said. “However, they’ve got guys who made tough, timely shots that stole our momentum. Basically, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong for us.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.