Marmion defeats Glenbard South
According to Marmion coach Ryan Paradise, his team is playing inspired basketball right now, and that trend continued at Glenbard South on Friday night.
The Cadets jumped ahead early and never looked back, leading to a 70-60 win that moved them over the .500 mark at 12-11.
It was Marmion’s third straight win and fifth in its last six games after starting the season 0-6.
“We find a reason for every game,” Paradise said. “Our guys are so inspired and playing together, that as crazy as the last two or three minutes were, we made enough plays to win. Whether it was an offensive rebound or breaking the press with a layup, enough guys made enough plays.”
Jacob Esp led the Cadets with 25 points, while teammate Jordan Glasgow added 15.
“For us we’ve been on a stretch where it’s been a different guy every night,” Paradise said. “Mike Sheehan’s had, I think, four 20-plus-point games. Danny Bicknell’s had over 15 rebounds in three of the last four games. Jay (Esp) picked up the scoring and Jordan (Glasgow) picked up the hustle points tonight. When one of our guys goes out, we say pick them up and we did enough of that tonight.”
Glenbard South (11-8) got as close as 4 with 2:15 left in the first half when Chaun Rickette, who led the Raiders with a game-high 27 points, connected on a 3-pointer that cut the Cadets lead to 30-26.
But Marmion closed the half on a 6-2 run, starting with a pivot move underneath by Glasgow, that gave the Cadets a comfortable 36-28 lead heading into halftime.
“We never really got into much of a flow tonight,” said Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke, whose team was celebrating Pack the Place night. “They killed us on the boards, and I thought they outworked us fairly consistently all night.”
The Cadets took their biggest lead at 66-49 when Tyler Maryanski assisted Esp inside with 2:45 left in the game.
The Raiders turned to the full-court press and forced 3 turnovers, helping fuel a 9-0 run.
Rickette’s steal and layup with 1:30 left trimmed the Cadets’ lead to 66-58, but Esp quickly put the lead back in double digits on the next play as Marmion broke the Raiders’ press and Esp scored on a lay-in underneath with 1:15 left.
Rickette and teammate Kyle Carli split a pair of free throws in the final 1:11, cutting the Cadets’ lead to 68-60.
Glenbard South had a chance to cut the deficit further, but Rickette’s 3-pointer from the top of the key rimmed out with 35 seconds left and Marmion managed to run out the clock.
“Everyone on the team is really giving the extra effort that we need to win,” Glasgow said. “We’re having fun and doing a good job of playing together.”