Menominee's Levi Kempka attempts a shot over Marquette's Alex DuVall Friday in Menominee. (Marinette, Wis., EagleHerald photo by Stephen Oman)

By STEPHEN OMAN

Marinette, Wis.,

EagleHerald

MENOMINEE — Marquette shot lights-out and defeated Menominee 53-28 in a high school boys’ basketball game played Friday night.

The Redmen made 11 of 23 on their 3-point attempts with six players making at least one.

“Right around 50 percent, absolutely we’ll take that,” Marquette coach Brad Nelson said.

Menominee tried to slow the tempo from the start. The Maroons won the opening tip, then passed the ball around the perimeter for two full minutes before Levi Kempka drove to the basket to give Menominee a 2-0 lead.

Marquette’s shooters made sure the game wouldn’t stay quite that slow. The Redmen led 17-8 after the first quarter.

“I told my guys early in the game, when we get the ball we have to score,” Nelson said. “We’ve got to get high-percentage looks, and we did.”

Menominee was playing without starting point guard Marcus McKenney due to injury, and that limited the Maroons on offense.

“Menominee didn’t have a lot of possessions. They were pretty deliberate,” Nelson said. “It can be painful to watch, but that’s kind of what they had to do without McKenney.

“I give them credit, they played hard. Fortunately, we were able to get a big enough lead in the second quarter where they couldn’t play that type of basketball.”

Menominee coach Pete Pericolosi said not having McKenney made things tough for his team.

“It was a tall task offensively. It makes it twice as hard (not having Marcus),” he said. “He’s been our starting point guard for three years for a reason. I thought Hunter (Hass) did a fine job when we put him at the point.”

Marquette built the lead to 27-16 at the half, and really pulled away in the third quarter. The Maroons only mustered four third-quarter points, and the Redmen led 37-20 going into the fourth.

“They’re a very good defensive team,” Pericolosi said. “They get right up on you and force you to do things you don’t want to do.”

Nobody scored more than nine points for Marquette, but they got contributions from everyone.

“That’s the story of our season, we’re 12 deep, 11 tonight with an injury. We get everybody quality minutes, everybody can contribute,” Nelson said. “I have no problem throwing anybody in the game to make a play for us. Different guys stepped up tonight. It’s been that story all year long.”

Ian Ogea, Garrett Finkbeiner and Luke Ogea each scored nine for the Redmen.

Hass led the Maroons with 15 points, and Kempka added four.

The Maroons celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Michigan Class B championship before the game, with coach Bob Krysiak addressing the crowd before the game.

Marquette also won the JV game, 62-42.