St. Edward prevails in heart-stopper at Jacobs

Somehow, St. Edward boys basketball coach P.J. White escaped the Jacobs Holiday Classic on Wednesday without a heart attack.

"You know that team (Tilden) didn't want to lose," White said after grabbing his chest. "Neither team wanted to lose. They were playing hard the whole game."

Tilden erased a 10-point Green Wave advantage in the last 3:45 to grab a 52-51 lead with a minute left after its full-court press forced 5 straight St. Edward turnovers.

But Zach Brewster called off the ambulance by converting two-old fashion 3-point plays in the last 55 seconds to give the Green Wave a 62-57 win over Tilden in the consolation bracket, snapping a 3-game skid at the tournament and 4-game losing streak overall. The Green Wave will play against Marian Central today at 1:30 p.m.

"You've got to be able to finish," White said. "We talk about that everyday in practice. If you're going to go up, make your layup and you've got to make your free throws. We won the game because we made our free throws."

In the third quarter St. Edward (4-7) outscored Tilden by 7 points to take an 8-point lead into the fourth. The lead rose to 13 on Ed O'Halloran's bucket with 5:55 to give the Wave a 47-34 lead.

But 2 minutes later, Tilden's press became frantic and St. Edward squirmed. Vlade Jones would hit two 3-pointers in that stretch and he and his brother Montez Jones, who had a game-high 25 points including 10 in the quarter, put back some key offensive rebounds to cut the lead to 1. The Blue Devils grabbed 17 offensive rebounds on the day.

Down 52-51 with under a minute left, St. Edward broke the press and found Brewster cutting to the hoop. Brewster did that twice and converted on both foul shots, his 7 points all coming in that stretch.

"It kind of swayed the momentum our way," Brewster said. "They were tough up close and we didn't experience that the whole game. They were just laying back."

St. Edward sank its free throws at the end to finish off Tilden, going 16 for 20 from the line. Tilden did have a shot to tie with 8.3 seconds left, but Montez Jones' 3-point attempt from the right corner hit the front of the rim.

The Wave shot 46 percent from the field, largely in part because Mike Ellis couldn't miss a shot on the baseline in the first half. His 17 points, 11 in the first half, helped St. Edward stay in front.

"They were running a zone so coach put me on the wing and wanted me do something different so it was good coaching by coach P.J.," Ellis said after going 6 for 12 from the field.

The Wave was outrebounded 29-21 but Tilden only had 6 players and Blue Devils coach Christopher Presswood felt that ultimately set the tone.

"We had role players playing starter's minutes," Presswood said, who noted his team's 19 turnovers also contributed to the loss.

"That what definitely killed us," he said.

O'Halloran also scored in double figures with 15 points for the Green Wave.