Boys Basketball: Marmion battles back to beat Walther Lutheran

Updated: December 6, 2011 10:57PM

A.J. Friedman picked a great time to enter the scoring column.

The 5-foot-10 Marmion senior scored a layup off a Walther Lutheran turnover to give the Cadets their biggest lead of the game at 52-49 with 1:18 remaining. The hosts then held on for a 52-51 victory on Tuesday in Aurora.

“It’s definitely big to get a win, our first home game of the year,” Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said. “It’s great to get a win in general, but to play a game like this, it’s making our team grow up and that’s what I’m happy about.”

Marmion (3-3) was battling from behind all evening. The visiting Broncos didn’t put together any significant scoring runs in the first half, but did finally pull ahead 43-35 on a three-pointer by Patrell Green (19 points) with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter.

“We got up by eight, but then they came back and hit some shots and the momentum shifted,” Walther Lutheran coach Al Lainio said. “We missed a lot of open shots, a lot of layups, but give Marmion credit, they played good defense.”

The disparity between the teams and turnovers was significant as the Cadets committed 24, while the Broncos only coughed the ball up on nine occasions.

“It can be frustrating to get a nice steal or rebound and then lose it,” Marmion junior Colin Kavanaugh said. “Finally at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth, we stepped it up.”

Injuries also created a problem for the Cadets. Starter Alex Theisen sustained a foot injury in the first quarter and didn’t return until the second half while Pete Stefanski, who hit a long three-pointer to help the Cadets rally in the fourth quarter, left the game midway through the quarter with an ankle injury.

“The nice thing is we’re always going to pick each other up,” Kavanaugh said. “We’re so deep that we’re able to bring guys in with new energy, and I think that and battling on the boards really helped us out.”

Marmion switched to a zone defense during the fourth quarter. The Broncos were unable to shoot them out of it while the Cadets eliminated most second-chance opportunities and finally pulled ahead.

“Every time we’d get close they’d end up putting one back in off a rebound,” Friedman said. ‘We started boxing out and didn’t give them many opportunities to score.”

The teams went back and forth throughout the first half. Marmion never led by more than two points before halftime, while Walther Lutheran’s biggest lead was only four points.

The Cadets were awarded free throws prior to the tip due to a bench foul on the Broncos. Stefanski split his attempts to give the Cadets a 1-0 lead, but they would find themselves fighting throughout the contest to get even with the Broncos.

Stefanski led the Cadets with 14 points, while Kavanaugh (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Ryan Glasgow (12 points, 11 rebounds) helped the Cadets enjoy a 49-31 rebounding advantage.

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