IC learns its lesson against Marmion
Immaculate Conception learned something the first time it faced Marmion.
It learned the Cadets’ Eddy Grahovec can shoot the basketball.
On Wednesday in Elmhurst, host IC laid a steady diet of triangle-and-two defense on Grahovec and teammate Nick Scoliere. It did wonders for the Knights in their 59-51 Suburban Christian Conference crossover win.
Demetrius Mobley led all scorers with 20 points and Anthony Loss scored 17 points with 4 steals for IC, which improved to 9-10 with its fourth straight victory.
Grahovec was limited to 4 points Wednesday, well below the 22 he scored in Marmion’s 82-51 win over IC on Dec. 20. Scoliere, more facilitator and defender than scorer, nonetheless notched 11 that night but none on Wednesday.
“We had to take away Eddy,” IC coach Darren Howard said. “He’s the one who drives their offense.”
Marmion (8-9) trailed 12-2 to start out, committing 5 turnovers in four minutes.
“It was nice to get out to a nice lead like that, prove to ourselves that we could play defense, we could hang with these guys after getting blown out by them early in the season,” said Pat Haggerty, the senior who defended Grahovec and also canned what Howard cheerfully called a “very ill-advised” 3-pointer for a 55-50 lead with 51 seconds to play.
Haggerty skirted screens to also defend Scoliere, when Brian Harvey wasn’t in the game, and Knights reserves Charlie Pulkownik and John Cheng entered for excellent defense and a couple key baskets.
Howard knew taking away one thing meant allowing Marmion something else. In the post, brothers Graham and Ryan Glasgow combined for 18 points and 12 rebounds, and forward Mark Berdelle led Marmion with 14 points.
The Cadets clawed from the early hole to tie at 50-50 on two Berdelle free throws with 1:52 left to play but inevitably couldn’t make up for 21 of 63 shooting and 18 turnovers.
“We get in a slump early on, coming back from that is tough, especially when we’re not hitting shots,” the good-natured Grahovec said.
Marmion coach Ryan Paradise’s postgame message, translated later by big Graham Glasgow, was not as subtle.
“We beat them by 30 before and we should have beat them again,” Glasgow said.