St. Edward downs Mooseheart

It took a full quarter for the St. Edward boys basketball team to find its rhythm Monday night.

The Green Wave committed 8 turnovers and fell behind Mooseheart 8-0 after four minutes and 13-5 at the end of one quarter.

However, frenetic St. Edward slowed its pace and bounced back to outscore the Ramblers in each of the three subsequent periods to secure a 40-33 victory in the season opener at the 3rd Annual Westminster Christian Boys Basketball Thanksgiving Tournament.

"The first half was just inexperience on our side because we don't have a lot of kids with a lot of minutes last year," St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek said. "We were just trying to do what we've been doing in practice, which is push the ball. But, obviously, they were a little more athletic than we were, so it turned into that mess you saw in the first half. "So we decided to slow it down in the second half and walk the ball up a little. We played some half-court trap and we went with a little 1-2-2 pass and drop, and that helped us a lot. It settled us down because there were stretches there where nobody was scoring."

Mooseheart (0-1) endured one such scoreless stretch late in the first quarter and well into the second, a drought that lasted 6:25. The Green Wave (1-0) took advantage with 3-pointers from Mike Ellis (14 points) and D.J. Byrnes (8 points), and Paul Bianchi's putback of an offensive rebound brought the Wave within 14-13 with 3:50 left in the first half.

However, Mooseheart still led 19-18 at the break, thanks to a pair of buckets from 6-foot-1 senior center Jonell Crump (11 points).

The Green Wave took the lead at the start of the third quarter on Byrnes' second 3-pointer of the game, and never trailed again, though the Ramblers were still within a point of the lead with 4:53 to play.

Zach Von Ahnen (9 points) scored after one of his 12 rebounds, and Ellis stole a ball and fed it ahead to Nick Kerger for a layup to gain some breathing room at 32-27 with 4:10 remaining.

The Ramblers were still within 36-33 with 1:23 left coming out of a timeout, but a 3-pointer off a set play didn't fall and Ellis was fouled and sank a pair of free throws at the other end. He would sink another pair with 6.4 second left to provide the final margin.

"We didn't know how we'd play when we came out because we lost a lot of seniors from last year," Von Ahnen said. "We struggled finding leadership on the court, but we pulled through at the end."

Afterward, Mooseheart rued what might have been.

"We didn't execute offensively very well," Ramblers coach Ron Ahrens said. "The name of the game - 2 for 12 from the free throw line and 30 turnovers. If we make even half of our free throws, we're right in the game. If we cut down 10 turnovers, we might win that thing. But 2 for 12 and 30 turnovers... darn it. We played better than I thought, though. We'll get better."