St. Edward 69, Plano 55
Personal milestones take a back seat to team goals come playoff time, but with St. Edward senior Brett Manning needing 28 points to reach 1,000 for his career, the Green Wave entered Monday's Class 2A Aurora Christian regional play-in game against Plano with a specific strategy in mind.
"The motto was get one more game for Brett," St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek said.
However, once Manning opened the game by sinking 5 of his 6 first-quarter shot attempts for 12 points, the focus quickly shifted from achieving the milestone in the Wave's next game to reaching it in the course of the next three quarters.
With the St. Edward boys basketball team enjoying a 20-point cushion on the way to an eventual 69-55 playoff victory over Plano (5-21), Manning's pursuit of quadruple digits took center stage.
He scored 3 points in the second quarter and 8 more in the third to pull within 5 points of the mark.
After a fourth-quarter free throw and a baseline jump shot elevated his career total to 998 points, Manning drove left from the top of the circle, blew past one defender and scored on a left-handed layup over another to the approval of the standing, roaring, green-and-gold clad partisans who made the trek from Elgin to Aurora.
The driving layup gave Manning the 28 points he sought, and he exited the game at the next stoppage with 5:58 to play to a standing ovation and a hug from Chuipek.
"It feels pretty awesome," Manning said afterward. "I didn't think I was going to score it all in one game. The team tried to get me the ball there at the end, and it just felt great."
Said Chuipek: "We thought if we could get to Wednesday night's game he could do it, but he went out and did it. He was like possessed out there. You could tell he really wanted it, so we kept him in until he got it."
The win advances No. 7 St. Edward (10-16) to Wednesday's regional semifinal against top-seeded Genoa-Kingston (20-6). Last year G-K defeated St. Edward in a regional semifinal 58-47.
Junior Josh Dix is a big reason the Wave won their third game in four outings. The shooting guard sank four 3-pointers in a 13-point first quarter, spurring the Wave to a 23-2 run to end the period with a 27-14 lead.
Overall, Dix sank six 3-pointers en route to a 23-point night, none more backbreaking than the 3-pointer he swished from the corner to beat the halftime buzzer. The shot staked the Green Wave to a 40-27 lead at the half.
"I just tried to carry it over from the last couple of games and tried to knock downs as many shots as I could," Dix said. "We wanted to get a big lead, stay comfortable and try to sustain it."