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St. Edward puts it all together in win over Westminster

St. Edward's boys basketball team put on a clinic on how to break down a zone defense Friday night at the Westminster Christian Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Green Wave made it look as easy as 1-2-3 ... penetrate, kick out, and then knock down the shots. St. Edward buried eight 3-pointers in a 55-31 win over the host Warriors to advance to the championship game against Luther North on Saturday night.

Nick Duffy had 21 points to lead the Green Wave in scoring.

"We knew if they played a lot of zone against us we were going to need to hit those outside shots," St. Edward coach P.J. White said. "We have been working a lot in practice on taking the shot as soon as we are open. We actually have a whole group of unselfish players who are looking too many times to make the extra pass and not taking the shot when it's there. But tonight we were a lot better. When we hit those shots we are pretty tough."

A big factor in the win was the play of the Green Wave's three guards - Gino Domel, Kelvin Cortez-Harvey (10 points), and Joseph French. Each had a 3-pointer in the first quarter as the Green Wave opened a 13-8 lead.

"We essentially have three starting point guards," White said. "They are the whole enchilada. They can all handle the ball, they can pass, and they can shoot. They have that quickness to penetrate in against a zone like tonight to draw in the defenders and then be able to dish it off."

The Green Wave (3-0) opened a 16-10 lead early in the second quarter on another 3-pointer from Domel and extended the lead to 25-17 at halftime.

"Hitting the 3s early was big for us," said French. "It gave us confidence and forced them to have guys step out on our shooters and that opens up the floor more."

The Green Wave shot 8-of-15 (53 percent) from behind the arc. Duffy became the beneficiary of his teammates' hot shooting. The senior forward didn't have a 3-pointer, but scored 6 buckets inside and made 9-of-12 free throws.

Duffy scored his team's first 6 points of the second half as the Green Wave opened a 32-18 lead. He finished with 13 of his points in the second half as the Green Wave continued to pull away.

"Our guards did a great job of driving and dishing it off," French said. "That makes it easy for the rest of us."

Westminster (2-1) suffered a big blow early in the second quarter when its top scoring threat Sam Carani crashed to the floor and landed hard on his back and shoulder on a drive to the basket. Carani had scored all 10 of the Warriors' points in the first quarter, but missed the rest of the game.

Westminster shot just 7-of-25 (28 percent) from the field the rest of the way and turned the ball over 15 times.

"Our basketball integrity was not good today," Westminster coach Bruce Firchau said. "We did not defend. We did not rebound well on either end. We did not keep our turnovers down. I was real disappointed with the way we executed on offense. We need to play Warrior basketball and that was not Warrior basketball. It was a lesson in humility."

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