A great home opener
Indians win for Showalter’s return
This was the kind of win Steve Showalter was looking for during the early stages of his first season at Menomonee Falls.
It wasn’t always pretty for the Indians in their Greater Metro Conference and home opener against Marquette, but gritty Falls found a way, slipping past
the Hilltoppers, 69-65.
The deep but undersized Indians staved off foul trouble and occasional shooting droughts to edge a taller Marquette squad determined to pound the ball inside.
“I wanted to see this fight,” said Showalter, back coaching preps in the state after one year as a college assistant in Missouri after a wildly successful stint at Germantown. “We got a win where we didn’t rely on our talent but we had to dig down and fight.”
In what looks like a tight conference race, both teams showed signs they plan to be in the mix all season.
With Falls (3-1) looking to run and take advantage of its depth and Marquette (1-2) hoping to use three starters 6-foot-5 or taller, slow the tempo and get easy baskets inside, the Indians made the clutch plays down the stretch.
Two of Falls’ biggest plays at the end came from reserves. Junior Nate Schuster’s three-point play with 3 minutes 41 seconds left and an ensuing basket gave Falls a 58-55 lead, and junior Payton Malone’s three-pointer from the corner gave Falls a 63-59 lead with 1:35 left.
A Jaden Champion basket with 29 seconds left gave Falls a 67-61 advantage and control the rest of the way.
“Our balance is a strength,” said senior guard Cross Wilson, who capably filled in for injured point guard Justin Gruber and scored 14 points to join Schuster as Falls’ leading scorers. “We really wanted this victory.”
Marquette turned the ball over 20 times against Falls’ pressure defense and was thwarted on offense down the stretch.
Still, Marquette coach Casey Kowalewski was encouraged with the performance in a tough environment. The Hilltoppers returned only one player — 6-5 forward Ryan Coffey (game-high 22 points) — who saw significant minutes on a team that reached the WIAA Division 1 state semifinals in March.
“We had the size advantage and we did a good job of getting it inside in the second half, but turnovers killed us,” Kowalewski said. “We have a lot of seniors and we look like we have experience, but this is a new group. We hope we grew up a bit.”