St. Edward 55, Montini 52
It's been a long three years for Brett Manning.
The St. Edward senior has seen three different coaches, a winless season, was a sophomore for the Green Wave's well-documented 2005-06 season, and he's gone from a supporting role to big-time scorer.
As the already loud crowd rose to its feet and raised the decibel levels when Manning went to the free-throw line with 39.5 seconds remaining Friday night it was all worth it.
Manning connected on both free throws giving the Green Wave a 55-52 advantage over visiting Montini. The Broncos would not score again as Manning and the other 6 Green Wave seniors closed out their home careers with a 57-52 Senior Night victory in a Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game.
"I've been waiting for this game for a long time," Manning said. "To be able to go out of this awesome place with a win -- you can't describe it."
After Manning (16 points) converted his 2 free throws, Montini (9-14, 4-8) ran the length of the floor but could not convert. The Broncos had another chance after Riley Coleman missed a pair of free throws with 17 seconds remaining in the game.
The Green Wave (8-15, 2-11) had an answer.
Steve Martin, who had dominated the glass all night, scooped up his fourth offensive rebound of the night. He quickly got the ball to Josh Dix, who drew the Montini foul.
Manning knew it was going to be a Green Wave victory after that.
"When Josh went to the free-throw line, I knew it was over," he said.
Montini had three shots as time expired in the game, but could not convert with Martin (16 rebounds) hauling down the fate-sealing rebound.
Montini had done its best to take Dix out of the action for much of the second half. The Broncos put Dex Jones, who has singed to play football at the University of Wisconsin, on Dix (9 assists). It didn't matter as the junior finished with only 6 points, but had 4 straight assists which allowed St. Edward back into the game.
Dix found Martin (16 points) for a 3-pointer and then Manning 3 times in a row to bring the Green Wave from down 34-29 to up 37-36. It was the first time St. Edward had led after Montini opened the game on a 10-0 run.
St. Edward finished the second half shooting 61.9 percent (13 of 21) from the floor in the second half after going just 33.3 percent (9 of 27) in the first half. Montini was outscored 20-9 in the third period.
"It's Senior Night here and it's always a tough place to play," said Jones, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "They got hot in the second half. They came out on fire."
John Sheehan scored 6 of his 10 points in the first half for the Green Wave and Alex Blashewski finished with 20 points for the Broncos.
"That's big for Sheehan," St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek said. "They were daring him to shoot it."