Marmion shoots down Imm. Conception

Teams can't afford to leave Marmion's shooters open. Immaculate Conception found out the hard way.

Marmion's Eddy Grahovec, Alex Theisen and Nick Scoliere each made first-quarter 3-pointers then Mark Berdelle got rolling inside and out to ruin IC's debut at the Waubonsie Valley Matt Laurich Christmas Classic, 82-51 on Monday in Aurora.

Marmion (5-4) made 10 of 19 first quarter shots, 5 of 10 from 3-point range. Grahovec's 10 first-quarter points drove a 25-13 lead going into the second, and IC (5-4) never got closer than 10 pointer thereafter.

“It's really the flow of the offense,” said Grahovec, the senior guard who tied Berdelle with a game-high 22 points. “A lot of our offense is set up around that, getting open shots. Beginning of the game we got some open shots — I had open shots all game.”

IC coach Darren Howard knew stopping Grahovec was the key, but the 5-foot-10 bomber exhausted first a triangle-and-2 and then man-to-man defense.

“We didn't execute anything we wanted to do,” said Howard, who had the Knights at Luther North over break 10 of his 11 years.

Along with the perimeter work of Grahovec and Theisen — who like Scoliere scored 11 points — Marmion coach Ryan Paradise enjoyed the transition game the Cadets assembled. It helped to outrebound IC 38-26, with Berdelle, Ryan Glasgow and later Grant Wilson beating the offensive glass as well.

“I thought we gave them a lot of transition looks to start the game, but we were able to keep up that same pace a little bit,” Paradise said.

Trailing 39-22 at halftime, IC opened the third quarter on a 7-0 run and came within 41-31 on center Pat Burke's second straight basket.

Scoliere, Berdelle and Grahovec, converting a three-point play, countered with a mini-run for a 48-33 lead. Marmion wasn't pestered again.

“I think our best thing is just to push the ball, and coach does a great job of preparing us in practice to push the ball,” said Berdelle, who had 5 of his team-high 9 rebounds on the offensive glass.

Demetrius Mobley, whose 19 points led Immaculate Conception ahead of Brian Harvey's 10, will see the Suburban Christian Conference foe again.

“It definitely motivates us more that they beat us,” Mobley said. “We knew that they were a good team, but we weren't expecting them to come out and beat us like that.”