Wheaton Academy’s Harvey lights up Marmion

Cameron Harvey couldn’t explain it, Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson just sat back and watched while Marmion coach Ryan Paradise wished he had anybody but the Warriors on the schedule for senior night.

Harvey, the Warriors’ Eastern Illinois-bound senior guard, caught fire Friday draining five 3s in the opening half as the Warriors opened a 16-point lead and never looked back in a 69-50 victory that wrapped up their third straight conference championship.

“I was unconscious out there I guess you could say,” Harvey said. “I didn’t really know what was going on. I was just going in the flow of the game, I was in the groove. I was just feeling it. That’s all I can say. I can’t really explain it.”

Harvey capped his shooting display with a 4-point play seconds before the halftime buzzer sounded to put Wheaton Academy on top 39-23.

Harvey was just 1 point behind the Marmion total at that point. He scored 11 points in both the first two quarters.

“I thought Cam led the charge for us there in the first half,” Ferguson said. “He was on fire. We were all kind of just watching him. He was unbelievable. He’s a big-time player.”

Harvey took an elbow to his neck in the third quarter and battled neck spasms the rest of the game. He made 2 free throws in the second half to finish with 24 points.

The damage was done at that point. Gordon Behr (16 points) and Collin Roy (12 points) picked up the offense in the second half. The Warriors built their lead to as much as 53-30 and Marmion never got closer than 15 points in the fourth quarter.

“It was a rough game,” Paradise said. “You are going to have those. I just wish it wasn’t so close to playoffs.

“Cameron went off. We were trying different things. We put our best on-the-ball defenders on him. It’s tough to come back from that kind of start.”

Wheaton Academy (17-9, 9-1) ran the table in the Suburban Christian after an opening loss to St. Francis, its only conference loss the past three years.

Marmion (14-13, 5-5) led just once Friday, 2-1 on Ryan Glasgow’s post move.

Harvey answered with the back-to-back 3s. He hit 8 of 11 shots from the field in the first half.

His 3s weren’t touching anything but net as they swished through while Harvey also was deadly elevating on jumpers high above his Marmion defenders.

“We’re all out there just to win,” Harvey said. “If you get caught up in the points you score, that’s not me. I’m just trying to do anything to help us win.”

Colin Kavanaugh tried to keep Marmion in the game with 17 points and A.J. Bohr added 11 off the bench but it wasn’t nearly enough.

“At that point even though we had a decent offensive rhythm Cameron went off,” Paradise said. “It’s kind of demoralizing when even though you feel like you are doing some of the right things no matter what we are doing on the offensive end we are still down quite a few.”

Roy and Behr both hit three 3s which combined with Harvey’s 5 gave Wheaton Academy 11.

The Warriors hope to carry over some of that hot shooting for their regional opener Wednesday against rival St. Francis. In the last meeting the Warriors prevailed 35-33.

“It’s going to be a physical game,” Ferguson said. “I hope we shoot the ball a little bit better. It’s a big rivalry, it’s a fun game, but it’s two good basketball teams and too bad we have to meet in the first round of the state tournament and one of us has to be out.”

Marmion also opens the postseason against its rival Aurora Central on Wednesday at Sandwich.