MANCHESTER • The Parkway South boys basketball team waited nearly a year for its rematch with Marquette.
The wait was worth it.
South defeated Marquette 53-38 on Tuesday night in a Suburban West Conference game at South.
"As soon as the ball went up, the kids responded and we executed defensively," said Patriots coach Mitch Stevens, whose team lost to Marquette in the district championship game last season. "I knew our guys would be hungry after last year. That was 348 days ago, and we were ready to get that taste out of our mouth."
In winning for the 12th time in 14 games, South improved to 17-6 overall and 5-0 in the Suburban West Conference. Meanwhile, Marquette lost for the seventh time in 10 games and fell to 11-10 and 1-4.
"We haven't shot it well in about four or five games, and, when you play a good team, it just multiplies," Mustangs coach Shane Matzen said. "I hate to use the word intensity because it's overused, but (the Patriots') level of play, as far as how hard they played, was really something."
A key factor for South was its ability to contain Ryan Rosburg. The 6-foot-10 Missouri recruit was averaging 22.5 points, but scored only nine on Tuesday.
Mark Waller, 6-7, was matched up against Rosburg, but South provided plenty of defensive backup.
"It was really good in the fact that, when I couldn't guard him, there was always someone else there to back me up," Waller said. "It was nice to have the help when I needed it."
The Patriots shot well all night, hitting seven 3-pointers. Jeremy Verges had four of them en route to a game-high 14 points, and Ryan McArthy had the other three as part of a 12-point night.
"It felt good to hit some 3s and get the ball moving quick," McArthy said. "We had some other guys step up around the perimeter like Jeremy Verges and Charlie Bakula."
Six early points from Waller and a trey off the bench by Verges sparked South to a 14-4 lead after one quarter.
"It's nice to get out to a good lead and take the pressure off a little bit," McArthy said. "We played good fundamental basketball. That was our goal."
The Patriots turned those fundamentals into a 25-11 advantage at halftime.
"We were shooting 21 percent at the half, and they were shooting 60," Matzen said. "When you make a basket, you float back on defense because you feel like a million bucks. It's hard when the ball doesn't go in the basket to run back really hard. And we didn't get called for a block tonight, which tells you how many times we tried to step in front of the penetration."
Marquette got a couple early buckets in the third quarter, but South essentially put the game away with an 11-0 run to balloon the lead to 37-16 with three minutes left in the quarter.
The Mustangs outscored the Patriots 16-13 in the fourth quarter, but it was too little, too late for a Marquette team that has with just four games left before districts.
"We've got a few things to work on in practice," Matzen said. "I hope we shoot better and I hope we play harder. Injuries, overtime losses, road trips. We're letting all these things bring us down, and we just can't do that."
Parkway South has three games remaining in the regular season. Two of those are against the other Suburban West leaders, Lindbergh and Lafayette. First up is a date with the Flyers at 7 p.m. Thursday at Lindbergh.
"I've seen them a few times," Stevens said. "They've got good guard play, and they're well-coached. They throw a lot of different looks at you on defense and offense. You've got to be ready for what coach (Jason) Wolfard brings at you."
