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MARQUETTE — The Marquette Senior High School boys basketball team had a tough time cracking Escanaba’s mix of defenses and were held down in a 49-37 defeat on Thursday evening.

Only giving up 49 points to the offensive talented Eskymos (9-4) gave them a chance to pull the upset, but Marquette (5-7) fell behind 11-4 after one quarter and were unable to claw back into the Great Northern Conference matchup.

The changing zone defenses weren’t unexpected, since Eskymos coach Tracy Hudson has traditionally liked to play zone over the years, using his roster’s length and athleticism to make things hard on opposing offenses.

From left, Marquette's Easton Clements dribbles up to the Escanaba defense of Jared Hanson and Connor Smale during their high school boys basketball game played at the Barb Crill Gymnasium in Marquette on Thursday. (Journal photo by Travis Nelson)

Playing against the tough Esky zone and with perhaps their most talented offensive player, Jonas Bicik, out of the lineup, it was hard for Marquette to get into a groove on offense and make shots.

On the other hand, Marquette’s toughness and defensive tenacity allowed them to stay within striking distance, mostly around the 10-point mark. However, it seemed like every time Marquette would cut the deficit to single digits, Escanaba had an answer.

“They made shots when they really needed to, and we came down especially in the second half, and I thought we had three really good looks inside at the rim and we missed all three of them and they went down and scored,” Marquette coach Brad Nelson said. “That changes the game, I think the whole mentality of teams and how things are going, if you can just put a little bit of doubt into some teams’ minds, and that was our goal. But they made shots, and I think that was the story of the game.”

The offensive output wasn’t top notch for Escanaba, either, as Hudson called the game a grinder. He wanted to make the Redmen a 3-point shooting team.

“The defense, the rebounding, the toughness, you have to match that with Marquette or you’ll lose,” Hudson said. “I think we did that, we did what we had to do to win tonight.

“It wasn’t a pretty game on either side, we felt they were a little suspect with their perimeter shooting, we mixed our (zone) defenses and tried keeping them from getting to the basket. They get a lot of drives and we tried to take the drive to the basket away and make them be a perimeter team, and I think it gave us a little bit of an edge.”

Marquette cut its deficit to 11-8 early in the second quarter after a pair of David Eberhard free throws and a bucket from Jack Quinnell. Esky countered with a 8-0 spurt to boost the lead into double digits after 3-pointers by Jared Hanson and Kaiden Brown.

The Redmen, who trailed 21-14 at halftime, had more opportunities in the second half, but had too many droughts to overcome. The Eskymos pushed the lead to 28-14 after a Connor Smale bucket. MSHS continued to fight back and Eberhard cashed in a transition 3-pointer to make it an eight-point game, but Smale answered with a 3 of his own. A late quarter 3-point shot from Wyatt Lakenen put Marquette down 10.

Esky’s defense remained strong in the fourth, holding Marquette to minute-long possessions that resulted in the clock becoming the Redmen’s second opponent.

Easton Clements scored seven of Marquette’s 12 fourth-quarter points, but it just wasn’t enough. Justin Jurmu cut the Redmen’s deficit to 38-29, but Esky had one last answer with an and-one from Trevor Brown, a lob from Brown to Hudson for a layup, and one more bucket to slam the door shut by Casey Bray.

“In the second half, we got good looks,” Nelson said. “We started shooting the ball better and got inside the zone which is what we wanted to do, and we scored. We just didn’t do that in the first half, it was a sloppy first half and it was a tough one.”

Smale led all scorers with 14 points, with Hudson adding 11.

Clements led Marquette with nine points in his solid fourth-quarter performance.

Travis Nelson can be reached by email at tnelson@miningjournal. net.