Stefanski shoots Marmion past Aurora Christian

Pete Stefanski poured in a game-high 20 points, including six 3-pointers, to help lead Marmion to a 50-46 victory over visiting Aurora Christian Friday night in Suburban Christian Conference Blue basketball action.

Stefanski, who shot a blistering 67 percent (6-of-9) from beyond the 3-point arc, had 15 of the Cadets' 26 first-half points.

"I was just comfortable," said Stefanski, who missed the first meeting between the teams last month (Aurora Christian won, 64-55) due to an ankle injury. "I took the shots I take in practice, and they were going in."

Stefanski, who added 9 rebounds and a pair of blocked shots, could hardly wait for a shot at redemption.

"I was definitely looking forward to it," said the 6-5 senior. "I wanted to get back at them."

Trailing 27-26 at halftime, the Cadets (13-10, 5-4) began the third quarter on a 10-0 run in the first 3 ½ minutes to take the lead for good. Senior center Ryan Glasgow scored 5 of his 13 points during the surge, and Stefanski's sixth 3-pointer of the night helped extend the Cadets' lead to 39-28 with 3:50 left in the period.

"Ryan's been playing great for us," Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said of Glasgow. "It's a lot easier for our shooters when the ball goes inside first. We got into a little rhythm to start the third quarter of going inside to Ryan and getting some easy shots and also getting some kick-outs."

Marmion still led 45-36 with 5:21 remaining before the Eagles (17-6, 5-4) mounted a late comeback. First, reserve forward Cory Windle (13 points) connected on a 3-pointer to make it 45-39.

After a Glasgow jumper pushed the margin back to 47-39, C.J. Schutt (13 points) buried a 3-pointer from the corner and hit a pair of free throws to narrow the gap to 47-44 with 2:30 left.

A few moments later, Windle's steal and layup made it 47-46 with 2:12 remaining.

"Cory made a really big steal there in the fourth quarter," Eagles coach Steve Hanson said of Windle. "He's a sneaky good athlete."

Neither team could capitalize on opportunities over the final 2 minutes, with Marmion missing the front end of 3 consecutive 1-and-1s while the Eagles misfired on a pair of 3-point attempts that would have given them the lead.

After Alex Theisen (6 points) split a pair of free throws to make it 48-46 with 18.1 seconds remaining, the Eagles saw their bid to send the game into overtime foiled when Schutt missed a turnaround jumper in the paint with 3 seconds left.

"We executed the play and got a shot in the middle," said Hanson. "It just didn't go in. It was exactly what we were looking for. He'll make that 9 of 10 times so it's not a big deal."

"I was thinking that they were going to go for a 3," Paradise said of the Eagles' last-second strategy. "They've got a number of real good 3-point shooters. Being up two, I wanted us to take away the 3-point line and try and help out on any cutters through the lane but worst-case scenario, we go to overtime. I was proud of the way we finished on the defensive end."

Ryan McQuade added 8 points for Aurora Christian, which shot just 4-of-23 from the field in the second half.

"We lost the game in the third quarter when we came out flat," said Hanson. "We didn't shoot the ball real well tonight but you've got to attribute that to their defense.

"It was a good test for us. It just didn't go our way."

Elgin 64, Larkin 51: Elgin standout Kory Brown heard the chants from Friday's near-capacity crowd at rival Larkin, arguably the largest throng in a decade to witness a regular-season boys basketball game in the city of Elgin.

"Over-rated, over-rated," the brimming Larkin student section howled whenever Brown stepped to the free-throw line in the first half in an effort to break his concentration.

Elgin's 6-foot-4 floor leader mustered only 5 first-half points on 1-of-7 shooting, but he was anything but shaken.

"They can think what they want to," Brown later said of the chants. "I know how I feel about myself."

Such confidence in his ability, coupled with an inspiring halftime talk with assistant coach Jeff Howard, ignited Brown and Elgin to a monster second half.

Brown scored 12 points in the third quarter on 5-of-6 shooting and posted 16 of his game-high 21 points after halftime to lead the visiting Maroons to a 64-51 victory over the Royals in the Upstate Eight River. He credited the halftime talk with Howard for getting his mind right.

Brown also grabbed 11 rebounds, blocked 5 shots and made 3 steals.

"He's the best player in our league," Larkin coach Deryn Carter said. "He showed it tonight."

The victory completed a season sweep for Elgin (19-3, 7-3) against Larkin (14-9, 5-6) and extended the Maroons' winning streak in the series to eight. Elgin leads the all-time series 79-40.

Brown stood out, but he had help. The Maroons were back at full strength for the first time in 7 games, thanks to the return from injury of third-year guard Dennis Moore.

Wearing a brace on his right hand, which he broke in the first meeting with Larkin on Jan. 11, Moore sank his first shot of the game, a 3-pointer. He went on to score a season-best 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting to go with 5 rebounds and 3 steals.

Larkin fell behind by 11 in the fourth quarter, but a 3-pointer by Quantice Hunter, a putback by Pipes and a coast-to-coast drive for a layup by Ruff helped pull the Royals within 53-47 with 3:35 to play with possession. However, Carter was issued a technical foul for arguing.

Brown sank both free throws for Elgin, and Williams was fouled on Elgin's ensuing possession. He split 2 free throws to make it a 9-point game with 2:06 left.

Elgin outscored Larkin 11-4 after the technical was assessed.

"I helped them out with a technical at a crucial point in the game that I can't get," Carter said. "I apologized to my team. We could have made some plays before that to maybe change the game, but we had the ball down 6. I thought we had some momentum and I kind of killed it."

Jerry Fitzpatrick

$CLASS=breakhead$Girls basketball

Kaneland 52, Rochelle 51: Emma Bradford connected on a pair of free throws with 1.2 seconds left to lift the host Knights to a Northern Illinois Big 12 East victory.

Junior Ashley Prost paced Kaneland (17-9, 7-3) with 13 points while Allyson O'Herron drilled four 3-pointers in a 12-point performance. Bradford finished with 9 points and Kelly Evers had 8.

The Knights jumped out to an 18-4 first quarter lead before the Hubs stormed back to narrow the gap to 24-22 at halftime.