Eilerman Catches Fire, Calhoun Pulls Away from Explorers

Both teams will be back in league play on Friday the 13th.

Feb 11, 2026 6:04 PM

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ALTON – Wednesday night was a clash between two 20-win boys basketball teams as the Marquette Catholic Explorers hosted the Calhoun Warriors.

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Both teams came into the game in excellent form, Marquette winning 12 of its last 13 games and Calhoun having won nine in a row.

That streak continued to 10 after a two-point game at halftime turned into a 20-point blowout, the Warriors improving to 21-3 on the season after a 66-46 non-conference win.

Calhoun head coach Casey Longnecker regarded it as his team’s best win of the season.

“Getting a big win like this was a good statement for our program and shows our boys we can do it,” he said.

It snapped a five-game Marquette win streak as it fell to 20-6 overall.

“We can’t let one game define us, and I don’t think that will define us,” Marquette head coach Steve Medford said postgame. “Hopefully this will be an eye-opening for us to come back and work hard tomorrow and get a little bit better for the rest of the way.”

Calhoun’s Blake Nolte opened the game with a three-pointer to propel his team to a quick 5-2 lead. The teams traded baskets throughout the first, but it was the Warriors up 12-8 after one.

The Explorers opened the second quarter with a 6-1 run, sparked by Chase and Cameron Jones that gave Marquette its one and only lead of the night at 14-13.

Jack Zipprich responded with a banked-in three-pointer that put his team back up 16-14. The Explorers would tie the game at 18-18 and 21-21 but never led again.

It was still anyone’s game at halftime with Calhoun maintaining a narrow, two-point lead at 25-23.

The Warriors got a basket from Lane Eilerman to start the second half followed by another Zipprich three. Just like that, Marquette trailed by seven.

Zipprich delivered another triple out of a timeout as well as a basket before a trey from Eilerman. Just like that, Marquette trailed by 12 at 38-26. That lead grew to 16 points after three at 48-32.

The Warriors outscored Marquette 10-5 to open the fourth and grew the lead to 21 points, at 61-40 enroute to the 66-46 final.

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“We wrote two things on the board, the two keys: be more physical with them, and it’s got to be one and done with rebounding. And we absolutely got annihilated on those two things,” Medford said.

“It comes down to being physical and it comes down to rebounding the basketball. It takes a little bit of heart, it takes a little bit of pride, and they won that tonight,” he added.

Longnecker wasn’t exactly sure what he’d get Wednesday night.

“It’s just hard to tell with the 1A, 2A,” he said. “I put Roxana, Staunton, and Marquette [on the schedule], high-level 2A [teams] and I challenged the boys. I didn’t know if we were quite ready for the level.”

They were against the Explorers.

The other times the Warriors have punched above their weight class have been a mixed bag. Three losses to the Staunton Bulldogs, who held their spot at No. 8 in IHSA Class 2A Associated Press rankings, but wins over Gillespie, Carlinville, Piasa Southwestern, and Hillsboro who all reside in the same South Central Conference.

“We realized we can play with these guys,” Longnecker said.

The Warriors play a couple more Class 2A schools next week on the road Tuesday, February 17 at Pittsfield and home against Roxana on Friday, February 20.

After just four points in the first half against the Explorers, Eilerman caught fire, dropping 20 in the second half and leading all scorers with those 24 points. Next up was Zipprich with 15 points, Gage Kiel with 10, and Jack Goode with nine.

While one team continues its winning ways, the other has to regroup and try to keep some momentum heading into the rapidly approaching postseason.

“We’ve responded really well from all of our loses,” Medford said. “We haven’t taken one on the chin like that, by 20, we kind of let that get out of control a little bit, but for the most part our kids have really fought. Hopefully we’ll learn from this and get better.”

So far, Marquette hasn’t lost back-to-back games, a feat that hasn’t happened for an entire season since 2018-19 when Medford’s Explorers went 30-4.

“We’ve got some good kids. I think they’ll respond well to it,” Medford said. “It’s a good test for us to get down the stretch. Sometimes when you win basketball games, you don’t learn from it, so, whenever you lose some games like this, you can learn a lot more from them.”

Chase Jones blew up for Marquette with 23 points while Cameron Golike added 13.

Both teams will be back in league play on Friday the 13^th. Marquette hits the road to Centralia for its final Gateway Metro Conference game of the season against Christ Our Rock Lutheran while the Warriors host Western Illinois Valley Conference rivals Carrollton.