Maberry, Shells Win First Regional Title Since 2015 Against Marquette

Marquette Explorers @ Roxana Shells | Roxana Regional Championship

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ROXANA – Two years ago, the Roxana Shells had the opportunity.

The chance to win a regional title on their home floor against one of their biggest rivals, Marquette Catholic.

Instead, the Explorers won their 14^th title in program history by a score of 48-43.

Sean Maberry remembers.

“My sophomore year we lost three times to Marquette, once in the regular season, once at Litchfield, and once at our place,” he said. “My senior year, we beat them at their place, we beat them at Litchfield, and we won a regional. I’ve been saying it all along.”

The Shells won all three meetings this season including Friday’s decisive IHSA Class 2A Roxana Regional championship by a score of 38-31.

It’s Roxana’s first regional crown since 2015 and it’s fifth in program history.

“This year, we’re just extremely fortunate,” Roxana head coach Mark Briggs said. “You can’t say enough about Sean Maberry, and [Trenton] Hollaway, [Keelan] Crawford, our seniors, those guys have just been battlers. And tonight, a lot of plays happened, kids stayed alive because of them, they just kept playing. Can’t say enough about the kids’ heart and desire.”

Maberry scored the game’s first basket before Chase Jones answered back with a three-pointer. The teams swapped the lead five consecutive times until Marquette took control at 9-7 after another Chase Jones three. The Explorers led 13-10 after the first quarter and 20-15 at halftime.

Marquette grew its lead to seven at 24-17 before Cohen Dugan banked in a triple, forcing the Explorers into a timeout with 2:16 left to go in the third.

“Dugan’s bank three, I’m going to have to ask his dad if he called that or not, because I don’t think he did,” Marquette head coach Steve Medford joked. “I’m going to have to ask old Pete Dugan if his son called that three-pointer because I don’t think he did.”

“But that was a momentum changer,” Medford said on a more serious note. “That big three was huge. We were up seven at that point, and it then got to 24-20 and all of a sudden, it’s a ball game.”

On the other side of the break Crawford drilled a three to make it a one-point game and with less than half a second remaining, Maberry took a trip to the foul line and made both shots to give his team a 25-24 lead after three quarters.

“Right now, as a student athlete, he’s ‘Mr. Roxana,’ I mean, that’s what he is,” Briggs said on Maberry. “He epitomizes what it means to be a Shell in all three sports. It was on display tonight. He’s a leader, he’s a warrior is what he is.”

The Shells never lost that lead.

Maberry drilled another three-pointer to open the fourth and make it 28-24 and Marquette reeling.

“Probably some of the biggest shots in my career,” Maberry said. “Regional semifinal game, I went 2-for-6 from the line. So, I shot a lot of free throws, and I knew this game was going to come down to that. I had to make them.”

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Roxana grew its lead to as many as nine at 36-27 after four straight free throws, two each from Aiden Stemm and Maberry.

“I think we get a little rushed,” Medford said regarding the second half. “Part of that execution is on me. When we have a little adversity, sometimes we get a little more in panic mode, but I wish we would have done a few things differently and part of that is on me.”

“I’ve always been a defense-minded coach,” Medford continued. “That’s where I think you win or lose a lot of games. You can shoot the ball poorly but still be in a game just like we were tonight. I thought our defense was there, but I think Mark [Briggs] said it earlier in the week, it’s just going to come down to making a few more plays, who’s going to make a few more plays?”

Those plays were made by the Shells, outscoring Marquette 24-11 in the second half with some critical free throws at the end.

“It’s awesome. This group of kids deserves it,” Briggs said. “They’ve had a fabulous year, 24 wins with a tough schedule. They’ve battled all year long.”

“Respect for Steve [Medford],” Briggs added. “Steve may have won the overall series against Roxana, but he did not win the miniseries this year. Roxana won the miniseries and that means a lot for us and our program to beat a team like that.”

Roxana won both meetings during the regular season by scores of 51-42 on December 2 in Alton and 39-35 in the Rick McGraw Invitational semifinals on January 23 in Litchfield.

From that regional championship two years ago, only one Explorer remained from that lineup – Jack Rea.

Unfortunately for Marquette, his playing time was limited in the second half on Friday because of an apparent injury early in the third quarter. It was a huge blow to the Explorers’ psyche.

“Jack getting hurt, people don’t realize that Jack Rea is the heart and soul of your team,” Medford said. “He is a warrior and is a kid that we really depend on. And when he went out, we had kids on the floor that were asking for him to come back in, and you know that’s not a good sign when he can’t come back in.”

“When Jack says he can’t go, you know he can’t go. It’s tough,” Medford continued. “Jack was like, ‘I don’t think I can help us.’ It was hurting him pretty bad. That sucked.”

Chase Jones led the Explorers with 14 points on the night while his brother Cam scored seven. Cameron Golike got eight and Carson Jones had two.

Marquette’s season ends at 25-7.

Dugan finished with 11 points for Roxana while Stemm added eight.

Maberry led the Shells with 14.

“This is awesome,” Maberry said. “I’ve grown up with these guys since second grade. These are my number one friends, I love them to death, and we did it. This game wasn’t like every other game, but we had to treat it like that. We had to come in, take care of business, and get things done the right way.”

Roxana improved to 24-9 overall and advanced to the Pleasant Plains Sectional semifinals where it will face top-seeded Quincy Notre Dame (28-1) on Tuesday, March 3 at 7 p.m.

Top-seeded Staunton (29-3) plays third-seeded Rochester (18-12) in the other semifinal on Wednesday. The sectional championship is set for Friday, March 6 at 7 p.m.

And Maberry plans to be in it.

“Our goal is to win the first Roxana sectional game ever.”

Marquette vs Roxana – IHSA Roxana Regional Final Highlights

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