Danos dazzles in Aurora Christian debut
Welcome to Aurora Christian, Dean Danos. You are going to fit right in.
Danos, a junior guard who transferred from Richards, made his Eagles debut Monday at the Hoops for Healing tournament at Oswego.
A 6-foot point guard, Danos pushed the pace all night for a team that already loves to run and gun. He finished with a career-high 31 points and 6 assists in an 83-72 victory that spoiled another debut, the first game for new Marmion coach Ryan Paradise.
Danos didn't find out he was moving until late in the summer. He didn't get a chance to play summer ball with the Eagles and is still getting to know his new teammates not that you could tell Monday.
“I like it, it's a new transition, a lot different,” said Danos, who started his freshman and sophomore years at Richards and scored his previous career high of 27 points against Mount Carmel.
“I love the school, I love the people and we're playing great so far, 1-0. It's all about winning.”
Danos displayed his ballhandling skills, weaving in and out of Marmion pressure and either getting to the basket or drawing a double team and finding an open teammate. His attacking style got him to the free-throw line 16 times and he made 14.
“First game overall I was really impressed,” Eagles coach Steve Hanson said. “Dean obviously was as advertised. All the kids played well. We're going to have to learn to play together a little better but a good start.”
Marmion (0-1), playing without football players and basketball starters Nick Scoliere and Grant Wilson, traded leads with the Eagles (1-0) eight times in the opening quarter. Mark Berdelle's putback basket gave the Cadets what turned out to be their final lead of the game, 17-16.
Hanson's son Jake swished a baseline 3-pointer to put the Eagles ahead 19-17 after the first quarter.
The Eagles outscored Marmion by identical 21-19 scores in both the second and third quarters to lead 61-55 going to the fourth. Aurora Christian's biggest lead came at 52-38 on Nick Marema's 3-pointer.
The Cadets came as close as 61-57 on Colin Kavanaugh's stickback to start the fourth. The Eagles responded with a quick 9-0 spurt that included a 3-pointer by Marema and ended on Danos' pull-up 16-foot jumper.
“If you have to constantly dig yourselves out of holes you have to exert so much energy to get back to ground level that a lot of times they don't have anything left in the tank to get over the hump,” Paradise said. “That's kind of what happened to us.”
Berdelle led the Cadets with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Eddy Grahovec added 16 points and Steven Bryant scored 10.
Paradise, a former Naperville Central and Northern Illinois player, enjoyed his first game as Cadets coach. He replaced Rashon Burno who accepted an assistant's position at Towson University.
“It was fun,” Paradise said. “I love the game so much. It is a different view for me than it was in the past but I love being in it, I love being in the fight with my guys. I'm just proud of our effort to get back after we dug ourselves a little bit of a hole.”
For Aurora Christian, Marema finished with 20 points and 7 rebounds, C.J. Schutt scored 13 points, Jake Hanson came off the bench with 9 points and Ryan McQuade pulled down 11 rebounds.
“We couldn't seem to put them away,” Steve Hanson said. “We have to make better decisions but we are going to be that type of team, a team of runs that pushes the ball at a high pace. Up 10 is really not that big of a deal the way we are going to play.”