Marmion, Brouch stay hot
It takes more than a week to cool off Marmion senior David Brouch.
Seven days had passed since Brouch drained the game-winning 16-foot jumper to stun East Aurora, and he picked up right where he left off Saturday afternoon against St. Francis.
Brouch swished his first 3 a little over two minutes into the game, and not long after that he had the Cadets student section chanting "You can't stop him." Brouch hit his first five 3-pointers on his way to a career-high 20 points in Marmion's 62-50 victory.
"I definitely got some confidence out of that game," Brouch said of Marmion's 52-51 win at East Aurora. "I wouldn't necessarily say it carried over today. I think I took a step in my game against East Aurora, but tonight I just felt good shooting the ball."
The win keeps Marmion (10-11, 8-4) perfect at home, and it came against a St. Francis (12-7, 5-4) team that just defeated Western Sun Conference leader Glenbard South Friday night.
"St. Francis, I have nothing but the utmost respect for them, but my team right now is playing good ball," Marmion coach Rashon Burno said. "I told our team if we are waiting for St. Francis to beat themselves, we'll be waiting for a long time. What we wanted to do was capitalize off what happened last Saturday, to play a 32-minute game and I think we did."
The Cadets blistered the nets, led by Brouch's 6-of-7 shooting from 3-point range. Marmion finished 18 of 29 from the field and 20 of 25 at the free-throw line.
Junior Mark Peters also scored a career-high 20 points. He did his damage at the line, sinking 12 of 15, and scored 18 of his points in the second half.
"That (East Aurora) was a huge win for us," Peters said. "I think that gave us a little boost for tonight, gave us confidence."
St. Francis stayed with Marmion early. Brouch's third 3-pointer in the first quarter gave Marmion the lead for good, 15-13, and started an 11-0 run.
The Cadets took a 31-19 lead at halftime, then extended it to as many as 17 points in the third quarter.
David Palash brought St. Francis within 46-39 in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 points in the first 3:44 before picking up his fifth foul. The Spartans never got closer.
"He was kind of our offense at beginning of the fourth quarter," St. Francis coach Sean Healey said. "When you are struggling and things aren't going well it's not uncommon for your best player to foul out.
"I wasn't happy with how we played at all. Defensively it seemed like we ran into every screen they threw. We had miscommunication on defensive end. When Brouch got loose there were a couple times nobody had him. That's the little things that make the difference in a basketball game."
Ryan Ferguson led St. Francis with 14 points, followed by Palash and Clint Pierce with 13 each.
Sean Fichtel added 10 points for Marmion, and Bryce Emory led both teams with 7 rebounds. The Cadets avenged an earlier 51-49 loss at St. Francis.
"It's really about toughness and we didn't show any," Healey said. "That's really the only ingredient we needed today. I think if we would have played tough, hard-nosed basketball we definitely would have given them more of a game. It was a lackluster effort."