Lafayette's Kevin Peifer looks to dish the ball to a teammate under pressure from Marquette's Karlos Washington. (Robert Cohen /P-D)

KIRKWOOD — The Marquette Mustangs have waited for this for a long time.

Just two weeks after suffering a heartbreaking loss to rival Lafayette, the Mustangs scored a major victory over their rivals on Wednesday in the first round of the Meramec Holiday Festival Basketball Tournament.

Marquette, the No. 11 seed, snapped an 11-game losing streak against Lafayette with its impressive 59-42 win over the sixth-seeded Lancers at Meramec Community College.

"This win means a ton to this whole team because we haven't beat them in so long," said junior guard Chad Haley, who scored a team-high 15 points. "We've been watching the teams before us lose to them. We've been fighting for it for so long and we finally got it tonight. It felt good."

Marquette (6-1) had lost 11 straight games against its rival, with the last win coming on Jan. 26, 2001. That 11th loss stung a little more, after Lafayette (5-3) came from behind to defeat the Mustangs 54-50 on Dec. 15.

"Out of respect to them, it's not a rivalry if the other team doesn't win sometimes," Marquette coach Shane Matzen said. "That's the honest to God truth. You have to win to have a rivalry. If I'm their program I walk on the floor expecting to beat us every time because that's how things have always played out."

Not on Wednesday. After trailing by one, 14-13, at the end of the first quarter, Marquette outscored Lafayette 20-5 in the second quarter and 17-10 in the third quarter to take a commanding 50-29 lead.

On Dec. 15, the Mustangs couldn't hold on to their lead. This time, they did.

"It was really hard to lose that one," Haley said. "We fought back, we had a lead in the fourth quarter and we didn't hit our free throws and didn't finish the game off and it just killed us. We knew we had to win this because we couldn't lose like that again."

Marquette, which will play DeSmet in the quarterfinals at 7 p.m. today, shot 53.8 percent from the field, including four of seven from 3-point range. The Mustangs committed just nine turnovers, and had three players in double figures: Haley (15), Tom Ahlborn (13) and Karlos Washington (10).

DeSMET 49, PARKWAY WEST 37 — The third-seeded Spartans trailed by seven points after one quarter and by four points at halftime, but DeSmet turned up the defense in the second half and outscored the No. 14 seed 27-17 over the final 16 minutes. DeSmet (7-2) got nine points apiece from Matt Kroeker, John Brandenburg and Scott Wessling. Jerry Pankey led Parkway West (2-5) with 8.

TROY 72, UNIVERSITY CITY 42 — Richard Rose scored a game-high 28 points, including 17 in the first half as the second-seeded Trojans (8-1) rolled over No. 15 seed U. City (2-7).

KIRKWOOD 58, VIANNEY 51: Ronald Patton and Joe Bergfeld combined for 39 points and 19 rebounds as the 10th-seeded Pioneers (3-4) knocked off the seventh-seeded Golden Griffins. Tommy Cochran led Vianney (6-5) with 22 points