Marian C. beats Cary-Grove at buzzer

Ben Schnepf was in the right place at the right time.

Schnepf’s tip-in as time expired gave Marian Central an exhilarating 57-55 win over Cary-Grove in third round action of the Hoops for Healing boys basketball tournament held at Woodstock North Friday afternoon.

“I had no idea how much time was left,” said Schnepf. “I just got the shot off and it went in. It is the first time in my career I have had a last-second basket to win a game. It is really exciting.”

Here’s how the game-winning basket materialized.

Adam Pischke launched a 12-footer in the lane which barely hit the rim and was followed by a missed shot from Nate Patterson and was completed by Schnepf’s buzzer-beater.

“We fell asleep there at the end,” said Cary-Grove coach Ralph Schuetzle. “We shouldn’t have allowed those shots. I like the way we battled at the end. We grinded it out. It was a tough way to lose.”

Trailing by 9, 51-42, with 2:28 left in the game, the Trojans (1-2) mounted a valiant comeback.

Led by a pair of 3-pointers from Jason Gregoire and a trey from Devin McDonough, Cary-Grove battled back and tied the game at 55 on 2 free throws from Tyler Szydlo with 49.5 seconds left, which set up the Hurricanes’ last-second heroics.

Marian Central opened the door for a Cary-Grove comeback win by making only 7-of-16 free throws in the fourth quarter and 12-of-28 from the line for game for 43 percent.

‘It was a good win against a good team, but the free-throw shooting is unacceptable,” said Marian Central coach Curtis Price. “We will definitely work on free throw shooting before (today’s) game. We should have had a much easier win. Steve and Ben did a great job on that last play to crash the boards and we got the win.”

Pischke, a sophomore led Marian with 29 points, which included 4 3-pointers. Wyatt Lindell added 13 points for the winners.

Gregoire led the Trojans with 23 pointers, which included 5 3-pointers, and 7 rebounds.

“Jason is our best player and he led us back with some key shots,” said Schueltze. “I would have like to have seen the game go into overtime. I thought we had all the momentum.”

Mike Krich added 9 points on 3 3-pointers for the Trojans.