Noonan, Marian Central handle Elk Grove

Elk Grove was hanging close, trailing 27-23 at halftime against Marian Central Catholic on Saturday at the Jacobs Holiday Classic.

Then Marian senior guard Danny Noonan went bananas in the third quarter.

Noonan scored 19 points in the period to blow the game open, and the Hurricanes wound up with a 63-46 victory.

"The first half I was just going through the motions," Noonan said. "Coach got into us at halftime. He said 'Someone's got to step up and bring some intensity.' Then I just came out hot."

Noonan finished with a game-high 29 points, even without scoring in the fourth quarter.

"We felt in the first half that we weren't playing with any fire," Marian coach Curtis Price said. "I thought we were kind of flat. We talked about coming out in the third quarter and picking up our intensity level."

Not only was Noonan a huge offensive force, but the Hurricanes (8-3) held the Grenadiers to just 6 points in that third quarter.

"It's always defense first," Noonan said. "At practice we're always defense first and offense second."

Playing better defense was what Price was stressing at halftime.

"The kids came out and they played great defense," Price said. "If you play great defense, your offense is going to become much easier. I thought that was a contributing factor today."

Helping out Noonan on offense were Jake Everly (11 points), Jacob Tonkin (9 points), and Joel Parker (6 points).

Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman said his team didn't play with the kind of effort and execution he expects.

"They (Marian) were the aggressors on both sides of the ball, and we didn't respond to the challenge," Furman said.

Furman said his team had some positives for three-minute stretches, but would follow it up with bad stints that lasted up to four minutes.

"The good things for three minutes did not outweigh the bad things," Furman said. "The bad things really dominated us. It was on-and-off, on-and-off. And that's not a good formula to win a ballgame."

Keven Zelaya led Elk Grove with 13 points, and Brian Battaglia had 11. Joe Bishoff added 8 for the Grens, while Scott Siwicki had 5 points and 7 rebounds.