Jacobs starts tournament with a big 'W'

Former Jacobs assistant and current St. Edward head boys basketball coach Keith Chuipek was able to watch his old program play Saturday at the Jacobs Golden Eagle Classic, but this time he watched from the St. Edward bench as he tried to upset the Golden Eagles.

Chuipek's hopes of an upset quickly came to an end after Jacobs' huge first quarter run that led the Golden Eagles to a 73-47 victory over St. Edward in the final game of the tournament's first round.

"When (Chuipek) got (the job at St. Edward) we talked about him getting in this tournament and he really wanted too. It was fun for me to see him on the other bench and I hope he enjoyed it as much as we did," said Jacobs coach Jim Hinkle. "Even though the game wasn't close, maybe it will be close next time. He has done a great job. The program is like night and day from when he went there."

St. Edward came out ready to play and jumped ahead 7-4 early in the opening quarter, but the Golden Eagles then racked up 23 unanswered points in about 4 minutes that the Green Wave were unable to recover from.

Although Jacobs' leading scorer John Moran didn't score ridiculous figures, the Northern Iowa University-bound guard led the team dishing out 9 assists in the first half, wowing the crowd with his ability to see the floor. Moran finished the game with 9 points, 12 assists, 5 steals, and 5 rebounds even with sitting out some of the second quarter and all of the fourth quarter.

"We had (Moran) with 12 (assists), but if we hadn't dropped so many he would've had 20," said Hinkle. "His intent tonight was to get everyone else points…he played a great game and made our team go and everyone else followed him up defensively. I just get more impressed with him every time we play."

St. Edward star Brett Manning seemed to be the only one to get going for the Green Wave. Manning had a great game with a game-high 22 points and helped the Wave play competitively through the last three quarters after falling behind 27-9 in the opening quarter.

"It was a good experience for us and I think it is going to help our team to see facilities like this and other teams and how they play," said Chuipek. "As soon as (Hinkle) gave us an opportunity to come in we knew it was going to happen and we were looking forward to it. It's good to be back here and it was good to see everybody."

Jacobs' Conrad Krutwig led Golden Eagles scoring with 16 points, Zack Peterson had 12, and Tim Moran added 11 points.