Marmion's 3s sink Sycamore
With his coach Ryan Paradise still searching for the right combination in his starting backcourt, junior Alex Theisen stated his case Thursday in the Cadets' first game at DeKalb's Chuck Dayton Tournament.
Theisen, who started earlier this season, came off the bench to score a game-high 18 points in Marmion's 59-50 victory over Sycamore in first day of the 84th annual tournament being played for the first time in DeKalb's new high school.
Theisen scored 9 points in each half as Marmion (5-5) overcome a 2-point halftime deficit by outscoring Sycamore (3-7) 20-11 in the third quarter to take control.
“He played real well,” Paradise said. “We're trying to find some consistency with our guards. We've had a couple stretches where a couple guys will have a good game or two but we don't have that consistency. It was good to see the guys who didn't start the game try to earn their spots. Alex was aggressive on both ends of the floor.”
Marmion made as many 3-point field goals — 10 — as 2-point shots. Pete Stefanski led with four 3s, Jeff Garofalo had 3, Theisen 2 and Johnny Peters hit one.
“We were shooting pretty well,” Theisen said. “We worked the ball around and got a lot of open shots.
“We have to get our mental aspects down and figure out we can actually play and be confident in ourselves and not doubt our abilities.”
Sycamore led most of the first half, outscoring Marmion by a point in both the first and second quarters to take a 28-26 halftime lead.
Stefanski drained the first of Marmion's 5 treys in the third quarter to tie the game at 29. His free throw put the Cadets ahead to stay at 32-31 before Theisen extended the lead with a 3 and then a drive.
Marmion's 12-2 run from the end of the third quarter through the first few minutes of the fourth turned a 40-37 lead into 52-39. The Spartans didn't get closer than 8 points as Marmion closed out the game in steady fashion after blowing an 8-point lead in the final three minutes of their last game against St. Francis.
“Got to bounce back from a loss like that,” Theisen said. “Really hard to lose in the last second. We learned we have to finish the game and not quit in the last two minutes because we played a really good game for 30 minutes (against St. Francis).”
“I kind of see the light going on,” Paradise said. “That's what we talk about is not making the same mistakes twice. With an inexperienced group we are growing and getting there. They are starting to understand the game situation.”
Big men Scott Nelson and Tom Paulson led Sycamore with 14 and 13 points, respectively.
“We didn't do a very good defensively,” Sycamore coach Andrew Stacy said. “We didn't have enough ball pressure. We were a step slow and they were able to capitalize on some open looks that we didn't get out on. We had some communication breakdowns and just some poor defense, there's no other way to say it.”
Marmion returns to pool play at 11:30 a.m. Friday against Harlem who defeated Sterling 55-43 on Thursday.