Marmion reaches DeKalb semis
Nobody at Marmion was sure the last time the Cadets won a holiday basketball tournament, but with two more wins that's going to be an easy question to answer.
Alex Theisen continued his solid play off the bench with a career-high 23 points, powering Marmion to a 59-52 victory over Sterling Monday at the 84th annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament in DeKalb.
With the win, the Cadets (7-5) completed pool play at 3-0 and advance to the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Rochelle.
"We've been in some tough ones (Christmas tournaments) at Waubonsie and Oswego," Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said. "We've always been the underdogs. The important thing is we're making progress."
Theisen has been on fire at DeKalb, starting with 18 points against Sycamore last Thursday followed by 15 the next day against Harlem. On Monday, Theisen poured in 17 of his game-high point total in the second half including 13 in the fourth quarter.
Several of Theisen's points came by moving well without the ball which led to easy lay-ins as teammates found him cutting to the basket. Two such plays came back-to-back in the third quarter that erased Sterling's (8-4) last lead of the game and put the Cadets ahead 36-33.
"Alex did a good job of making the simple read and diving to the basket and I was pleased we found him with the ball," Paradise said. "I'm most pleased with our adjustments the last few games. In the first half it seemed we were fighting tooth and nail for that same sort of stuff."
On those consecutive baskets Theisen was assisted by Colin Kavanaugh and Pete Stefanski. Kavanaugh also drew a charge that helped turn the momentum Marmion's way.
"We were just running our offense, cutting, my teammates made good passes to me and set good picks to get me open," Theisen said. "We were just running our offense. I just got fortunate enough to score the points. It could have been anybody."
Until Marmion took control midway through the third quarter, the game had been tight with 13 ties or lead changes. The Cadets were their own worst enemy much of the first half with 11 turnovers.
Chris Fritsch, who tied Patrick Petrosky for the Sterling scoring lead with 15 points, scored 10 of those in the first half including a second-chance basket in the final minute of the second quarter. Stefanski got fouled and made both free throws to put Marmion ahead 26-25 at halftime, though the Cadets weren't that pleased with their play.
"We were being a little careless," Theisen said.
Marmion stayed in the game with its own pressure defense that forced 24 Sterling turnovers.
"We were just pressuring their ballhandlers," Theisen said. "We always want to put pressure on them and make sure they don't have a lot of breathing room. All around we played pretty good defense. Our rebounding (31-31) we need to work on a little but other than that we had pretty good ball pressure."
The Cadets also had a huge advantage at the free-throw line, making 16 of 21 compared to the Golden Warriors' 4 of 14. And of those five Marmion missed free throws, Theisen rebounded one and three times Stefanski worked for position to get the offensive rebound.
Ahead 39-33 going to the fourth quarter, Marmion never let the lead dip below 4 points and was up by at least 7 over the final three minutes. Stefanski (15 points), Jeff Garofalo (9 points) and A.J. Bohr (8 points) joined Theisen to combine for 55 of Marmion's 59 points.
"I thought Alex did a great job of attacking the whole game," Paradise said. "The majority of the second half we took care of the ball and attacked their pressure which is when we are at our best. When we're hesitating we kind of stall out there. We did a good job making the simple basketball plays."