Marmion frustrates West Chicago
West Chicago coach Bill Recchia had to wince as hope turned into too little, too late.
His squad had clawed its way back to within a dozen points when Marmion missed two free throws with just less than three minutes remaining.
Two Wildcats grabbed the rebound only to have Matt Fletcher steal the ball for a lay-in en route to a 65-56 Marmion victory in Wednesday's third-place game for DeKalb's 88th annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic.
“That was the game in a snapshot,” Recchia said. “Down 12 with them missing, two guys go after it and their player steals it and scores. That was our last opportunity.”
That's assuming West Chicago (10-3) could have also started shooting better. Between turnovers and missed shots, the Wildcats trailed by 17 before Tai Bibbs beat the first-quarter buzzer with a 59-foot line drive off the backboard for a 3-pointer to make it 25-11.
Marmion (8-5) led by 22 just 3:07 into the second quarter before West Chicago went to halftime trailing 40-24.
“One team clearly came out ready to play and the other didn't,” Recchia said. “Winning a varsity basketball game is not easy and the takeaway is that you don't just walk out on the court. We lacked dedication and effort tonight.”
The Cadets nailed 56.4 percent of their shots, including 6 of 12 3-pointers in the first half. In the desperate attempt to narrow deficits, West Chicago finished the game 7 of 41 from 3-point range as part of an overall 26 of 110 effort.
A Quinn Ricci lay-in with 3:44 to play got the Wildcats within 10 but Marmion big man Mick Sullivan ended a string of six missed free throws by making both ends of a 1-and-1 prior to Fletcher's pivotal play. Fletcher added an assist pass to Hunter Weber for the Cadets' 65th point with 2:05 left.
The Wildcats reserves then accounted for the last 8 points to produce the final tally.
“Obviously, we have to come out with a much better effort,” Peter Dolan said. “Even though we haven't been shooting too well, there was too little fire. DeKalb is a very good team, but Elgin and this (loss) are definitely two we'll believe we should have won.”
Dolan led West Chicago in rebounding with 9 to go with 6 points. Tai Bibbs finished with 13 and Jason Gimre added 11.
Marmion's Jon Young had a game-high 12 boards to go with 2 points while Weber led everyone with 18 followed by 17 and 12 from Sullivan and Fletcher, respectively.
Tai Bibbs and Sullivan earned all-tournament honors.