Marmion hands Aurora Central 1st SCC loss
Sean Fichtel bettered his first cousin when it truly mattered.
The Marmion senior guard, held scoreless against Aurora Central Catholic for almost 31 minutes, scored the final 4 points of the teams' riveting Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game, including a running one-hander with six seconds to play.
Aurora Central senior standout Anthony Kelley had a 16-footer at the buzzer rim out, and the Cadets survived 43-42 before a frenzied, standing-room-only crowd at home Friday night in Aurora.
Marmion (11-13 overall, 9-4 in the conference) cost the two-time conference-champion Chargers (20-3, 11-1) a perfect league record in the process.
"(The game-winning play) was our design out of the timeout," said Fichtel. "If (ACC senior Mike Adams, his cousin) didn't come up, I was supposed to go all the way."
"We knew (Fichtel) was going to do dribble penetration," said ACC coach Nate Drye.
Adams began the game playing in a different zone.
The forward opened the contest with back-to-back steals for coast-to-coast conversions and extended his personal team run to 14 points with two 3-pointers, a jump hook and turnaround jumper.
"We knew (Adams) would eventually cool down," said Marmion senior forward Bryce Emory, who led the Cadets with 17 points.
With Marmion dictating the pace of play with a deliberate attack against the Chargers' formidable 2-3 zone defense, the game dramatically altered in tempo after the first quarter, which ended with ACC leading 16-15.
Adams was completely neutralized by the Cadets' clock-eating possessions, and Emory was the lone Marmion player to score in the second quarter.
Emory gave Marmion its one and only first-half lead with an inside score, but Kelley restored the Chargers' lead with his only two field goals of the opening half.
The Chargers' 25-21 lead at the break was short-lived, however, as Emory extended his team run - which began with a 12-footer at the first-quarter buzzer - to 12 by opening the third quarter with the first 4 points.
But Aurora Central appeared to seize control as Kelley had 6 of his 10 points during an extended second-half run that Joey Guth fueled with a 3-pointer.
Marmion trailed 40-33 when Emory drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to launch the Cadets' comeback.
"It came within the flow of the offense," Emory said.
Czaja scored the Chargers' final points at the free-throw line, only to see Mark Peters' 3-point play halve the Cadets' deficit with 2:02 to play.
Aurora Central then would have consecutive turnovers, and Fichtel cashed both in to unleash a chaotic response from the Marmion and Rosary student bodies.
"I had to be patient and wait for the right time," Fichtel said.
"We literally gift-wrapped it for them," Drye said. "We made so many stupid plays down the stretch. All we had to do was run clock. We were looking for baskets we didn't need."
Adams' 17 points paced ACC; Peters finished with 10 for Marmion.