Patience helps St. Francis prevail against St. Edward

With a multiple-pass motion offense a regular staple to St. Francis' game, the Spartans often have to display plenty of patience.

On Friday night against visiting St. Edward, the Spartans needed to be extra patient for more than a half before their shooting eyes came around. Fortunately for St. Francis (13-7, 6-5), a 23-18 halftime deficit was not obstacle enough to keep the hosts from knocking off the Green Wave 55-40 in Suburban Catholic Conference play.

St. Edward, which jumped head 13-2 behind 7 quick points from guard Phil Johnson, played one of its better defensive games all year but had exceptional success in the first half while limiting St. Francis to 8-of-31 shooting and 18 points.

"I thought we played pretty well tonight," said Green Wave coach Keith Chuipek, whose team trailed just 33-29 after three quarters. "They shot something like 71 percent in the first half against us the first time so we concentrated on playing better defense tonight."

The Spartans, however, got on track over the final two quarters and used a balanced attack to pull away from St. Edward (6-14, 2-9). Forward Ryan Ferguson tallied 9 of his 11 points in the second half to join Clint Pierce and Joe Pfeiffer - 12 points apiece - to give the Spartans three players in double figures. Ryan Cole added 9 second-half points as St. Francis found its shooting touch while knocking down 14 of 24 shots over the final two quarters.

"We came out pretty flat and played a horrible first half," said Ferguson, who also had 5 rebounds and 2 steals. "It was frustrating as a team. Even the layups weren't falling."

Riley Coleman had 8 of his 11 points in the first half for the Green Wave, and Steve Martin had 7 points and 7 rebounds over the final two quarters, but St. Edward just couldn't consistently get shots to fall after its fast start to the game.

"To hold them to 18 points in the first half was great, but ultimately we just didn't knock down enough shots," Chuipek said.

The Spartans, meanwhile, did knock down enough shots - at least in the second half. They also took care of the basketball, turning it over just 6 times compared to 15 giveaways for St. Edward.

"St. Ed's came out real hard, with a lot of swagger and energy, and we didn't match it in the first half," Spartans coach Shawn Healy said. "But in the second half I thought we played a lot smarter. We continued to play hard and the kids persevered. There's four quarters to a basketball game for a reason."