Marquette Academy pulled away with a shutout second quarter and cruised to a strong finish in its 53-32 conference opener victory at Seneca on Friday night.

It took a competitive 14-9 first quarter, but the Crusaders eventually settled in on both ends of the floor. Led by junior guard Griffin Dobberstein, who tied his career high with 28 points, Marquette outscored the Fighting Irish 16-0 in the second quarter, building a 30-9 lead into half and never looked back.

“We had a horrible practice yesterday and I was real concerned about tonight,” Marquette head coach Todd Atkins said. “But our energy was there on the defensive end. We controlled the boards pretty good and did better on our help defense.”

Dobberstein said the Crusaders’ fast start in the first half after Thursday’s rough p

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