Marmion survives shaky free-throw shooting

Marmion was beginning to doubt if its opponent, Al Raby, would show up for Wednesday's game in the Warrior Christmas Classic at Waubonsie Valley.

A couple hours later and the Cadets were wondering if they'd make enough free throws to hold on for a victory.

Traffic and wet conditions slowed Al Raby, a school from Chicago, from getting to Aurora and inconsistency from the charity stripe plagued the Cadets, but they survived, 40-36.

"We played an emotional game against Naperville North yesterday so it was a good bounce back," Marmion coach Rashon Burno said. "We couldn't get into a rhythm with the long layoff in the locker room and trying to stay warm."

Marmion (7-5) led 36-34 with 2:02 remaining but missed the front end of a one-and-one. Fortunately the Cadets made a defensive stop and Nick Scoliere came through by draining a pair of free throws with 59 seconds left to make it 38-34.

The Cadets then missed four consecutive free throws while the Raiders connected on a pair to make it a 38-36 contest. The Raiders had a chance to tie or take the lead but point guard Edward Brown slipped and turned the ball over with 2 seconds remaining.

A sigh of relief was finally afforded the Cadets when Eddy Grahovec made two free throws with only a couple ticks remaining.

Marmion connected on just 11 of its 22 free throws.

"We've been shaky at times," Scoliere said. "We practice each day so I don't know what happened today. We'll go on streaks where we'll make 5 in a row and then miss a bunch in a row."

Perhaps it was the start being delayed by close to an hour or playing on consecutive days, but neither team seemed to be able to find a good rhythm all afternoon.

The Cadets appeared to frustrate the Raiders, who scored 89 points against Kankakee on Tuesday, denying the ball inside and forcing long-range jumpers. Daniel Cleveland kept the Raiders close by draining 3 three-pointers in the first half, but the Cadets denied him any attempted three-point shots in the second half.

"We knew coming in that he shot lights out against Kankakee," Burno said. "The zone worked where he didn't get many shots."

Greg Askwith and Mark Peters paced the Cadets with 11 points apiece. Peters also collected a game-high 11 rebounds while Askwith was key in the second half when he scored 8 of his points. Scoliere contributed 7 points.