Scholl provides the cushion for St. Francis

St. Francis senior Michael Scholl was scoreless in the first half.

He missed 9 free throws in the second half.

But it was his 3-pointer midway through overtime that allowed the Spartans to recover Marmion's brief and only lead of the night.

And it was the 2 consecutive free throws that he made with 24 seconds left that gave his squad a 4-point lead.

Thanks to Scholl, the Spartans held on for a 54-48 overtime victory against the visiting Cadets.

"I think he kind of said, 'I'm going to take that shot and put the team on my shoulders' and kind of put it upon himself," St. Francis coach Shawn Healy said. "He's that kind of player and he's going to keep shooting no matter what, and he caught it in rhythm and as soon as he touched it I knew he was shooting it and good, he's a senior and a leader, and I'm glad he took it."

Scholl scored all 13 of his points in the second half. He made 10 of 20 free throws while his team as a whole only made only 24 of 44, which allowed Marmion to keep it close all evening.

"We shot horrible from the free throw line," Healy said. "Missed probably 10 or so layups around the basket. I mean, I'm excited we won, but not exactly thrilled about how we went about getting it done."

Marmion (8-8, 4-2) fell behind 7-0 at the start and still trailed by 7 points at 31-24 entering the fourth quarter. The Cadets finally pulled even at 38-38 after an Andrew Young 3-pointer and a pair of free throws by Pete Stefanski with 4:24 left in regulation.

The teams were tied four more times before Mark Berdelle had a steal and a layup to put the Cadets ahead 48-46.

"He's always in the right spot and will give you everything he has," Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said. "Unfortunately we fell a little short tonight but he's given us that effort all year and we love having a guy like him."

Scholl quickly followed Berdelle's big play with his 3-pointer. Scholl converted 3-of-10 free throws in the final 1:31 which gave the Cadets several opportunities to tie the game or take the lead, but they never would answer.

"It's a heartbreaker," Paradise said. "It's definitely rough to have a lead in overtime and not come away with the win. It hurts a lot."

Missing 20 free throws can also be painful for a team.

"If you make 10 of those free throws, we're not in the situation at the end of the game," Healy said. "We had a chance to make it a lot easier on ourselves than we did and we didn't."

Eric Stout led the winners with 14 points. Berdelle led Marmion with 14 points and Eddy Grahovec added 12 points.