Down 13, Marmion rallies past Aurora Christian
Marmion junior guard Hunter Weber has a pretty simple philosophy when open behind the 3-point arc.
"Once I get on a run just keep shooting until I miss," Weber said.
Weber didn't miss with the game on the line Monday against Aurora Christian. He canned four 3-pointers, three of them during a furious Cadet rally in the fourth quarter that saw them wipe out a 13-point deficit and beat the Eagles 59-56.
"I was pretty confident," Weber said. "I had the hot hand. I was feeling good after the first 3. I just had to pull no matter how deep."
The final two of Weber's 3s would have been good with an NBA 3-point line. The Eagles were a little slow to pick him up so far back, and Weber made them pay.
The win gives Marmion (8-6, 2-0) the early upper hand in what is going to be a quick Suburban Christian Conference race over Aurora Christian (8-4, 1-1), two teams who make up half of the four-team league.
Both teams overcame double-digit deficits Monday. The Cadets opened the game with a 9-0 run and led 21-11 early in the second quarter.
The Eagles scored the next 14 points and led 27-24 at halftime. RD Lutze ended the third quarter with a 3 to make it 45-36, and his putback early in the fourth gave Aurora Christian its biggest lead at 49-36.
"We said just take it possession by possession and good things are going to happen," Marmion coach Joe Currie said.
The Cadets outscored the Eagles 23-7 to end the game. Jake Esp started the comeback, and Weber's 3 on a feed from Matt Fletcher sliced the deficit to single digits at 49-41.
After a Lutze 3, the Cadets kept charging: Esp scoring on a spin move, Fletcher making two free throws and Weber's back-to-back deep 3s that cut the Eagles' lead to 54-51 with 2:59 left.
"That's a mental mistake on our part," Eagles coach Pat McNamara said. "We've got to guard."
The Eagles turned the ball over, and McNamara's son Pat was called for an intentional foul when he wrapped up Jordan Glasgow driving in for a layup.
Glasgow sank both free throws, then penetrated, drew three defenders and dumped down to Fletcher for a lay-in to complete a 4-point possession for a 55-54 lead.
Freshman Jake Wolfe drained a clutch pullup 15-foot jumper to briefly put the Eagles back up 56-55. Glasgow drew another foul and drained both free throws to put the Cadets ahead to stay, 57-56 with 42.2 remaining.
Lutze misfired on a 3, and Richie Jarnell, a Marmion senior who did not come out for the team last year, scored his first points of the season with 2 free throws with 9 seconds left.
"What a great situation for him (Jarnell) to be in," Currie said. "Just proud of him. He's worked really hard in practice."
Pat McNamara's game-tying 3-point attempt in the final seconds rimmed off.
Glasgow (17 points, 5 steals), Weber (14) and Esp (11) all reached double figures.
"Glasgow is just tough out there," coach McNamara said. "He showed he's a winner."
Lutze led the Eagles with 12 points, Jeremiah Wright had 10 and McNamara and Zach Singer both added 8.
"Jeremiah was really tough on the ball," McNamara said. "He's a real inspirational type of player. He had one of his better games tonight.
"Our guys are battlers. They played hard, they played unselfishly but one area we can get better at as the season goes on is we can play smart. I don't think we played a smart game."