Marian Central topples Wave

The St. Edward Green Wave made a strong comeback late in the game, but ran out of gas losing 63-56 in Suburban Catholic conference play Friday against the Marian Central Hurricanes.

The Green Wave's sluggish start to the game left them trailing the Hurricanes (2-8, 1-3) nearly the entire game.

"We started off (slow) in the last game too and got done 8 or 10 points and came back and just ran out of gas like tonight," said St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek. "We had a hard time guarding the ball. They got the ball on the wings and drove right past us and came right down the lane and we didn't have any help side defense."

Marian's 5-foot-10 guard, Chris Casey, scored 13 points in the first half with 10 of them layups. Almost all of the Hurricanes' 32 first-half points were scored in the lane.

St. Edward (4-3, 0-3) started its comeback in the third quarter after falling behind by its biggest deficit of 17 points. Josh Dix and Brett Manning hit back-to-back 3's to cut the lead to 45-34, but Marian slowed the pace of the game down and ran the clock down. Manning hit a 10-foot jumper with time running down in the third that picked up his team's spirits and gave them hope.

"(The team) feeds off of Brett. He's our senior. He's our leader, all-conference all area guy, so it's good to see him get in the flow of things and have a good game," said Chuipek.

Manning started the fourth quarter hitting a 3-pointer that cut the lead to 8 and the team picked up its intensity. St. Edward kept chipping away hitting 7 second-half 3-pointers and 5 of them in the final quarter. Dix and Manning hit back-to-back 3s once again late in the fourth quarter to tie the game 55-55. Marian then pulled away in the final minute from the charity stripe. The Hurricanes shot 19 of 23 from the line in the game.

Manning led the Green Wave with 24 points including four 3-pointers that all came in the second half, and Dix added 12 points in the tough loss.