Grahovec rallies Marmion past St. Francis
Live by the ‘3’ or die by it.
Marmion found the answers, St. Francis could not as the Cadets’ hot-handed Eddy Grahovec hit five 3-pointers and scored 23 points to lead Marmion to a 55-50 comeback win Friday night.
“That sense of urgency really kicked in toward the second half,” said Grahovec after his team came from 13 down at the end of the first quarter to steal a Suburban Christian Blue win away from the Spartans. “All of us started to get going because we knew had to step up if we wanted to win this game.”
St. Francis (2-2, 0-1), which did everything right in the first quarter in grabbing a 20-7 lead and even a 10-point lead at halftime, struggled afterward while shooting 2 for 17 from deep.
Even sharpshooter Michael Scholl (8 points) went cold.
“We didn’t deal with adversity very well,” Spartans coach Shawn Healy said. “When things are going well, everyone’s high-fiving and everything’s a great time, but when the train was off the track, we couldn’t bring it back on and you got to credit Marmion for that.”
Nick Donati had 12 points for St. Francis and Ryan Coyle had 16 points and 9 rebounds after three quarters but nothing in the fourth quarter.
Mark Berdelle kept Marmion (2-3, 1-0) in the game in the second period with four field goals to finish with 15 points.
Several players stepped up down the stretch for the Cadets aside from the clutch-shooting Grahovec.
Alex Theisen hit his only shot, a 3 from the right wing, with Marmion down 46-45, then the sophomore hauled in an offensive rebound following a missed Marmion free throw, sending Grahovec to the line to seal the victory.
“It’s always nice to get a win, I don’t care of you have the lead from beginning to end or if you have to fight tooth and nail to get back in it,” Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said. “I think it feels a little better for me because I know what my guys will do when their back is against the wall. As a coach, that means a lot to where if a team makes a run at you and gives you a good punch, can you punch back and keep going and our guys did that and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”