Marmion 66, Marian Central 53
It's been nine days since the Marmion boy's basketball team won its own Thanksgiving tournament, and the Cadets showed a little bit of rust as they got back into action at Suburban Catholic Conference rival Marian Central Catholic.
The game featured a slw start and sloppy play by both teams with almost 50 turnovers and shooting of well under 50 percent in the fist half.
The Cadets used an 11-2 run to end the first quarter and were able to hold the Hurricanes to just 4 points in the second quarter to open up a double digit lead they would never relinquish. They went on to get first-year coach Rashon Burno his first conference victory and improve to 4-0 on the year.
"The game was ugly from the outset," said Burno. "I don't know if it was because of the layoff but we could not put our thumbprint on this and it was an ugly game from start to finish."
Junior guard David Brouch (13 points) and senior forward Tyler Smith (8 points) kept the Cadets in the game early as Hurricanes senior Jordan Peart came out firing with 8 of his game-high 22 points in the first quarter. But Peart and the rest of the Hurricanes went cold from the field and they scored just 7 points in the next 14 minutes while turning it over 14 times.
"I thought in the first half we settled for too many jump shots," said Marian Central first-year coach Curtis Price. "We got our shots blocked a couple times and we got intimidated and stopped taking the ball to the basket. We've been taking care of the ball pretty well all season and for some reason today the ball was sort of hot out there. I don't know if it was the simple fact that it was our first home game and we were a little nervous but that is something we have to make sure we fix."
Bryce Emory helped the Cadets extend the lead with 8 second quarter points down low, taking advantage of a Marian roster that's tallest player was listed at 6-foot-3.
Robby Whitehead took his turn as the Marmion go-to guy at the start of the second half. After not scoring in the first half, Whitehead went hard to the basket for 9 second half points and drew several fouls that put the Cadets into the double bonus early. The Cadets shot 35 free throws in the game, more than double Marian Central's total of 17.
Sean Fichtel finished the game for Marmion scoring 8 of his 10 points in the fourth quarter as the Cadets were able to hold off Peart, who re-appeared to score 14 fourth-quarter points after going scoreless after the first quarter.
The Cadets also received nice contributions off the bench from Robert Reder and Colin Hirsh.
"I try to find positives in every game and that was a great thing today," said Burno. "Reder played a great floor game, Colin came in and played a good game so we can build off that. It was a good team win."