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Falotico's return gives St. Viator a seasonal lift

Christmas came a bit early for St. Viator.

The Lions had not expected guard Mark Falotico back on the court until January. But Falotico, who had been sidelined with a foot injury, got clearance to play earlier this week.

Falotico, who played sparingly, scored 12 points as St. Viator rolled past Carmel 75-54 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference opener for both teams Friday in Arlington Heights.

"It was his first game back and he looked good," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said. "He is still working on his wind, but we will get that with time. I was pleased with him defensively and offensively."

Falotico had issues with the same foot he broke last year that cause him to miss more than half the season. He was not expected back until after the Proviso West tournament, but the foot healed quicker this year.

"It felt good this week and I hopped back on it," said Falotico, who after coming onto the floor early in the first quarter, drained his first shot from outside the 3-point arc.

"It was great to be back out there with the guys. I was happy as I could be. The guys were feeding me and I was making my shots."

Not only was Hayes happy to have Falotico back on the court, he was even more pleased that his team got off to a good start in East Suburban Catholic play.

"It is nice to get our first conference win, which is always important," Hayes said. "Coming off of last Saturday, I thought we got back to what we do best, which is play defense."

And it was that defense that enabled the Lions (5-1, 1-0) the opportunity to pull away in the second quarter.

Leading 19-13 after the first quarter, the Lions began to attack Carmel with their quickness on defense and the ability to jump into the passing lanes. St. Viator forced 8 turnovers in the quarter and kept the Corsairs away from the basket.

Meanwhile, on the offensive end the Lions were finding ways to get the ball in the basket, converting 7 of 11 shots. Hayes wasn't afraid to get his bench involved early, either, as nine different players scored in the first half to help Viator open up a 37-23 lead at the break.

"We got some easy shots," Hayes said. "And that is because of how hard we played on the defensive end."

Carmel also had no answer for 6-foot-6 Sal Cannella, who finished with a game-high 17 points and 8 rebounds.

"Last game, we shot, I can't tell you how many threes," Cannella said. "So we worked all weeks to get the ball inside, so we could open up our outside game as well. I was able to make some shots and that helped."

Ricky Muench had 10 points, including a pair of 3s, for the the Lions. Pat McNamara, Danny Walsh and Jake Stepuszek each had 7 points while Kyle Hammarlund added 6 points.

Carmel has now lost 4 in a row this year. Despite that, new head coach Zack Ryan was pleased with his team's play.

"Tonight we got off to a good start, but had a hard time maintaining it," Ryan said. "I thought we got a lot better in a lot of areas. It is a just a young team and we have to focus on sustaining."

Shareif Belser-Bailey led Carmel with 14 points while Christopher Duff had 13 points and Brian Julien added 9 points.

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