Coffey, Fitch lead Batavia past Marmion

Nobody could blame Batavia for a letdown Saturday after a comeback win over Larkin the night before to stay unbeaten in the Upstate Eight River.

The Bulldogs showed they weren't satisfied, playing another strong game in front of a large crowd that came out to see a rare nonconference matchup at neighboring Marmion.

In the first game between the schools since a regional battle in 2003 and the first regular season meeting believed to be in 25 years, the Cadets played catch-up the entire game and might have got there if not for Batavia senior Canaan Coffey.

Coffey, who scored 21 points against Larkin, poured in 26 more including 7-of-10 shooting on his 3-point attempts, leading Batavia to a 67-59 victory.

"We wanted to come out with energy because we can't be satisfied with that one win last night," Coffey said. "There can't be any letdown in energy. We kept each other up the whole game."

Batavia (9-6) never trailed. Marmion (8-7) tied the game just once at 5-5 on Matt Fletcher's 3-pointer.

Coffey drained three of his 3s in the opening quarter to stake Batavia to a 20-9 lead.

"We knew he was a shooter, we knew he had some range," Marmion coach Joe Currie said. "Give him credit. I thought we had guys with a hand in his face. Credit to him, he's a great player. Some of those were pretty deep."

Marmion, playing without 6-foot-8 center Mick Sullivan who injured his ankle Friday night, closed within 31-25 at halftime.

The Bulldogs scored 8 straight points to start the second half including triples from Coffey and John Fitch to take their biggest lead of the game, 39-25. Marmion's best outside shooter, Hunter Weber, got loose for back-to-back 3s to start another comeback, and by the time the quarter ended the Cadets trailed 47-42.

Nick Valente, who entered after Fitch's fourth foul, came up with a key putback bucket on one end after blocking Fletcher's shot on the other. Coffey drained a couple daggers when the Cadets came close, first a long 3 from the top of the key to make it 52-44, and another moments later for a 57-47 lead.

"We knew they weren't going to stop fighting," said Coffey, who also had 9 rebounds and 5 assists. "I got a few open looks and happened to knock them down. That was big for our team. We ended up finishing up from there. We were really tough in the fourth quarter."

Fitch also came up big with 18 points and 11 rebounds while battling Fletcher inside who finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds of his own.

"It was a rebounding battle," Fitch said. "Boxing out I always love that. It was fun. Post to post, I hit one shot, he hit one shot, other than that all our baskets were post moves, offensive rebounds."

Jon Young led Marmion with 19 points and Weber scored 13.

"Good win against a good team," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said.