St. Edward notches win over Amboy in regional opener

The St. Edward boys basketball team didn't want to dig deep in its bag of tricks, not with the players from top-seeded Genoa-Kingston noting every move from the stands during Monday's Class 2A regional play-in game against No. 5 Amboy.

As it turned out what little the Green Wave showed was more than sufficient. They rolled the Clippers by a score of 73-36 to advance to Wednesday's semifinal against G-K at 6 p.m.

Genoa-Kingston (17-9) has eliminated St. Edward (10-18) from the playoffs the past two seasons.

No. 4 St. Edward used a basic flex offense to gain open shots off screens at will throughout the first quarter against Amboy (6-21). The Wave canned 9-of-14 shot attempts, including five 3-pointers, to take a 26-5 lead after a period.

Senior Steve Martin opened the game with a soft jumper from the elbow, and senior Riley Coleman calmly stroked a 3-pointer to make it 5-0. Then Phil Johnson caught fire.

A 6-foot-1 junior guard, Johnson connected on three straight 3-point attempts from the left wing to balloon the lead to 14-2, capping St. Edward's 5-for-5 start from the field that included four 3-pointers.

"You knock down a couple of shots and everything just feels good the rest of the game," said Johnson, who finished with 13 points. "We came out and played hard and made our shots."

Amboy never challenged. The Green Wave held the Clippers to 4 of 16 shooting in the first half and forced them into 10 turnovers. St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek began substituting liberally in the second quarter and the Wave led 41-11 at the intermission.

The Green Wave starters were pulled with 1:48 left in the third quarter, when the score was 54-18, and attention began to shift toward the rematch with Genoa-Kingston. "We know we have a tough game on Wednesday," Chuipek said. "We'll see what happens."

Coleman led the Wave with 14 points, including four 3-pointers. Sophomore Mike Ellis added 9 points and 3 steals.