Parkway South blazes past Marquette 53-38

 

The Parkway South basketball team has been picture perfect in Suburban West Conference play this season and on Tuesday night; the Patriots added another gem of a performance to its unblemished conference mark.

Buoyed by big nights from sophomore guard Jeremy Verges, senior guard Ryan McArthy and another sturdy effort from senior forward Mark Waller, South rolled past visiting Marquette and University of Missouri bound center Ryan Rosburg for a 53-38 victory.

The win moved Parkway South to17-6 (5-0 in conference) and allowed the Patriots to erase the sting of last Saturday’s 70-51 loss at DeSmet and it gave South a little payback from last season’s 30-28 district title game loss at the hands of Marquette.

“We didn’t have a very good game against DeSmet, some got back to work in practice put in some hard work and get ready against Marquette,” McArthy said. “They (Marquette) beat us to end our season last year and we wanted to come out and really get the win.”

South rolled to a 14-4 lead after one quarter on the strength of three baskets from Waller and a three-pointer from Verges. Verges fired in a game-high 14 points while McArthy and Waller added 12 and 9 points for the Patriots.

The gap expanded to 25-11 by halftime and while the Patriots had their pressure defense and up-tempo transition game rolling in high-gear, the Mustangs were stuck virtually in neutral as Rosburg picked up three fouls by early in the third quarter.

Marquette’s big man was held in check throughout the night as he finished with just 8 points.
“It took a team effort to guard Rosburg and I think our team did a nice job with it,” Parkway South coach Mitch Stevens said. “We were able to convert some of those turnovers and rebounds into points on our end.”

A Verges basket and a McArthy three-ball pushed the lead to 40-20 late in the third quarter.
With just over six minutes to go, Rosburg pulled Marquette (11-10, 1-4) to within 41-27 on a twisting layup. But after Rosburg’s missed the foul shot for a potential three-point play, the Mustangs could not get any closer.

“Well, we had a little something extra to play for today, definitely,” Stevens said. “Last time we were only able to score 28 points against them and a lot of our kids on the team remember that game and wanted to come out and get that taste out of our mouths.”

Mitch Cox paced Marquette with 12 points and Alex Winter added 8 points.

Parkway South will try to extend its perfect Suburban West season Thursday night at 7 p.m. with a road win at Lindbergh. Marquette returns home Friday with a chance improve its conference mark when the Mustangs host Oakville in a 7 p.m. conference game.