St. Francis 52, Marmion 39

Rashon Burno has an idea why St. Francis senior Brian McMahon is so mystifying to match up with.

"He's a jack of all trades, master of none," Marmion's coach said. "He is a good player for this area."

McMahon was his usual self Friday, scoring 20 points in a variety of ways, all while handling the ball and pulling down 7 rebounds for St. Francis in a 52-39 win at the Spyglass Athletic Center in Wheaton.

"Senior night, our last conference game, it was really big for us to come out with a win tonight," McMahon said. "We wanted to end on a good note."

No two McMahon scores were bigger than when Marmion had trimmed an 8-point St. Francis halftime lead to 27-24 with a free throw by Tyler Smith with 3:14 left in the third quarter.

St. Francis (16-9, 11-3 Suburban Catholic Conference) milked nearly two minutes off the clock on the ensuing possession, ending with McMahon's free throws with 1:27 left.

"It's tough to have them score without a shot going up," Burno said. "But credit to them for making the free throws."

The next trip down, McMahon soared for an offensive rebound and laid in the score for a 31-24 lead.

Marmion never again pulled closer than 6.

"We kind of lost our energy there with a big lead," McMahon said, "but we stuck it out at the end."

St. Francis took control of the game early, courtesy of a 15-0 run. David Palash's steal, score and three-point play gave the Spartans an 18-4 lead with 6:06 left in the second quarter.

St. Francis held Marmion without a score for 7:03 spanning the first and second quarters.

The Spartans led 24-16 at the half. Neither team established much momentum in a game with 37 fouls called.

St. Francis finally pushed the lead back into double digits at 43-32 midway through the fourth quarter on Bob Vonderhaar's three-point play.

Vonderhaar scored 12 of his 16 points in the final quarter.

"There was no rhythm to this game tonight," St. Francis coach Shawn Healy said, "but we did a good job defensively. I don't think we played our best basketball by any means, but we played hard."

Smith scored 14 points and James O'Shaughnessy 8 for Marmion (12-12, 7-7).

"My kids will never quit," Burno said, "but you cannot afford to give a team like St. Francis a cushion like that."