Culver IN. The Eagles returned to action Friday in their first game of the New Year against the Marquette Catholic Blazers. Culver returns after a three-and-a-half-week hiatus for Winter Break. The pause in action didn't seem to affect the Eagles too much, however, as they fought off the ring rust quickly and started off hot.

The Eagles went on a 14-2 run to start the  first-quarter with Marquette's only two-points coming from the charity stripe. Seniors Amir Gates and Jokubas Skurdenis led the way, having four and five points, respectively. Thomas Collins added a triple and Cooper Farrall had a two-point bucket. Two early fouls from Farrall and a couple of turnovers at the end of the quarter allowed for the Blazers to battle back and cut the Culver lead to five as the quarter ended 14-9.

Marquette scored the first bucket of the second, but Farrall regained the momentum for Culver as he scored seven straight points. Culver added to that with a great defensive quarter, holding Marquette to nine-points for the second straight quarter. Offensively the countered with their highest scoring quarter of the game. Farrall had two more points to cap off the quarter with nine. Skurdenis had eight with two three-point shots. Collins added a three, Fola Fayemi added two, and Gates added one to extend the lead, ending the half with a 37-18 advantage.

Culver didn't stop in the third as they dropped 20 in the third quarter to Marquette's 13. Farrall lead with 11 points off a pair of threes, Collins added two more three-pointers including a tremendous half-court shot to end the half. Fayemi had two and Gates had one more from the line. Culver started to get into foul trouble in this quarter as Daley Stein and Fayemi both picked up their fourth foul in the quarter, and senior Andrew Macheca picked up his third. Still Culver held a comfortable lead heading into the fourth leading 57-31.

Fayemi quickly picked up his fifth foul and Farrall got his third and fourth. Skurdenis opened scoring in the quarter with two from the free-throw line, as well as a two-point score from the field. Farrall picked up his fifth foul midway through the quarter, making him the second Eagle to foul out. Junior Luke Vincent and Sophomore Jadyn James took advantage of this and got some solid minutes in the end of the game.

Macheca picked up his fourth late in the game and Stein later became the third Eagle to foul out of the game in the closing minutes of the game. Offensively, Skurdenis added another two-point field goal to finish with six in the quarter. Stein added a pair of free-throws, and Macheca added a single free-throw. Freshman Wade Seddlemeyer and Sophomore Darius Holland got their first varsity minutes as well, and Holland picked up his first points at the end of the contest. James also had his first varsity points with a three, ending the game with a final score of 71-46.

Culver's next contest will be their biggest challenge yet as they travel to Westfield, Indiana to take on 4A's #3 team* the Westfield Shamrocks.

*rankings via the IndyStar AP Poll