St. Edward 63, Marmion 58
In a first half where St. Edward needed some 3-point shots to stay close to Marmion, Josh Dix was there bombing away, knocking down five 3-pointers in an 18-point performance.
In the second half, when the Green Wave wanted to get the ball inside, Dix delivered, adding 8 points for a game-high 26.
Most importantly, when it was time to spread things around to seal a Suburban Catholic Conference victory, Dix was certainly willing to let others share in the team's success.
And it was some success. St. Edward claimed a 63-58 win on Friday against a battle of teams that have been playing better basketball lately.
"I was feeling it in warm-ups," Dix said. "Usually if I'm shooting well in warm-ups, I'm going to come out in the game hot. My teammates know that when I'm shooting well, they keep giving me the ball."
In the first half, only three Green Wave players scored: Dix, Brett Manning (7 points) and Steve Martin (5 points.) After a slow start, Marmion grabbed the lead and kept it into the midpoint of the third quarter.
St. Edward (9-16, 3-11) hit Marmion with a 10-point run that bridged the end of the third quarter and the opening 4:30 of the fourth quarter. At the end of that run, the Green Wave led 56-45.
Bryce Emory and Tyler Smith were dominant for Marmion (12-11, 7-6) through the first half. Emory scored 13 of his 17 points while Smith had 11 of his team-high 21 points in the opening half.
But things got tough for the Cadets in the second half. Emory scored 4 second half points and none in the fourth quarter. Smith had only 1 shot in the third quarter.
"We were hoping that we could possibly pull it together," Marmion assistant coach Ricky Robinson said. "We could never get it clicking on all cylinders. So consequently we came up a little short."
Into that breach stepped Sean Fichtel, who scored 6 of his 10 points in the fourth quarter. Combined with a strong Smith finish, Marmion nearly got back into the game. Down 8 points with 46 seconds left, the Cadets used 2 free throws by Luke Kolquist and Smith to cut the lead to 4 points with 32 seconds left.
Twice in the final half-minute, Marmion launched 3-pointers but was unable to score.
"We had a lot of good lucks, but they just weren't dropping," Robinson said. "All week long, we tried to get prepared for this. But we had a couple of bad practices and think that kind of carried over tonight."
Martin hit a free throw for St. Edward with 15 seconds to go to provide critical spacing between the teams.
"We played all 32 minutes as a team," Dix said. "That was the first time all year that we played all 32 minutes. We've been struggling, but we're trying to come on here at the end of the year."