Hampshire can't quite solve Marmion

Mark Berdelle says he has been in a funk from the free-throw line.

You wouldn't have been able to tell Tuesday night.

The Marmion senior went 12-for-12 from the foul line, including 10-for-10 in the fourth quarter, as the Cadets pulled away from Hampshire for a 54-43 victory in the Class 3A Hampshire regional semifinals.

"It's kind of uncharacteristic for me. I've been a little inconsistent," said Berdelle, who finished with 14 points, all in the second half. "Tonight, for some reason, I was just feeling it and had a good rhythm going. The ball kept going in."

No. 3 seed Marmion (15-12) will play top seed Crystal Lake Central (23-4) at 7:30 p.m. Friday for the regional championship. Hampshire's season ends at 20-6.

Both teams came out slow Tuesday night. The Cadets, who have won five straight, led 10-8 after the first quarter and 19-14 at halftime. Marmion was 7 of 18 from the floor. Hampshire went 6 for 17. The Whip-Purs' last lead came at 11-10 early in the second quarter after a 7-0 run.

"We played very, very timid in the first half," Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said. "Give Marmion credit. They absolutely outplayed us. Defensively they pushed us around."

The Cadets' Steve Bryant hit a pair of free throws and Berdelle had a steal and layup, his only field goal of the game, to give Marmion a 23-14 lead with 6:50 remaining in the third quarter.

Hampshire wouldn't get any closer than five the rest of the game as every time the Whip-Purs hit a key shot, the Cadets had an answer. That usually came from Eddy Grahovec, who hit three 3-pointers in the third quarter and five for the game.

"That was exactly what we were trying to take away. We didn't want (Grahovec) to go off," Barnett said.

Grahovec scored a game-high 17 points. Alex Theisen added 11 points off the bench. Graham Glasgow led the Cadets with 8 rebounds and Berdelle added had 7 as Marmion outrebounded Hampshire, 28-20.

"The key was staying on the boards," Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said. "Against their two bigs (Shane Hernandez and Tyler Watzlawick), that was what we stressed all week in practice, making sure we outrebounded them."

Tyler Crater, Hernandez and Ryan Cork each had 9 points to lead the Whip-Purs. Cork was playing in just his second varsity game. Watzlawick added 8 points. Hernandez and Watzlawick each had 5 rebounds.