advertisement

Marmion runs by South Elgin

At the end of one quarter Saturday night, both South Elgin and Marmion were on a 100-point pace in an up-tempo, high-scoring, entertaining matchup.

Neither could keep scoring at that clip but the Cadets came the closest, getting 31 points from Jake Esp, 16 by Jordan Glasgow and 15 from Hunter Weber for an 82-67 nonconference victory.

It was the third time this year Esp has scored over 30.

"I knew in warm-ups I was on and I kept shooting," Esp said.

Marmion (14-11) and South Elgin (9-18) traded the lead 6 times in the first quarter and 3 more in the second. The Cadets took the lead for good just before halftime.

South Elgin hit 11 of 14 shots in the first quarter. Marmion stayed close behind Esp and Glasgow, the former with 15 points in the quarter and the later with 4 assists.

The Storm led most of the second quarter, the final time at 38-36. Glasgow made a pair of free throws to tie the game. After a blocked shot by Matt Fletcher, Glasgow hustled to save the ball from going out of bounds and tossed it toward the other end of the court where Fletcher picked it up and scored on an off-balanced leaner for a 40-38 lead.

Sophomore Myles Schoonover followed with a layup to close the first half with Marmion ahead 42-38 and momentum on its side.

"That was huge," Marmion coach Joe Currie said. "That kind of got us going to finish the half."

Weber and Glasgow made two quick 3s to start the third quarter and quickly push Marmion's lead to 48-38. One of four 3s from Justin Howard got the Storm within 60-51 heading to the fourth.

Marmion also held the Storm to 7 for 23 shooting over the middle two quarters.

"We started hedging their screens better and started going diaganol to cut off their drives," Esp said. "And we focused on rebounding."

Back-to-back assists from Anthony Lynch to Logan Atkins cut Marmion's lead to 62-58. The Storm would get no closer.

During a 14-5 run that followed, Weber nailed another 3 and Evan Pickard scored on a third-chance putback as the Cadets pulled away.

"I thought we did a good job of moving the ball around," Currie said. "Hunter hit some shots, Jordan is Jordan, he willed us through a lot of things with his hustle and his determination. I thought it was a good team effort. Lot of positives out of that."

The Cadets shot 50.8 percent (29 of 57) from the field and made 16 of their 21 free throws. They also outrebounded the Storm 34-20 led by 8 each from Pickard and Esp.

"We never were able to get stops," South Elgin coach Matt Petersen said. "Even when we did a good job on their initial possession, we would give up a second shot or third shot or fourth shot. We had multiple possessions like that."

Atkins led South Elgin with 16 points, Lynch scored 13 and Howard 12.

Storm junior Matt Smith finished with 8 points. He played with a band-aid over his left eye the result of an incident Friday night after a loss at Metea Valley.

Smith told Aurora police he was assaulted Friday night by as many as four people he identified as possibly being Metea Valley players after the two schools competed in an Upstate Eight Conference game in Aurora.

"Apparently, a 16-year-old Elgin male who plays for the (South) Elgin team said he was battered by several males thought to be Metea basketball players at around 9:30 p.m. (Friday) night after the game as he was getting ready to board the team bus," Aurora police Sgt. Dan Ferrelli said in an email responding to a Daily Herald inquiry about the attack. "Apparently, some of his teammates came to his aid. He went to an Elgin hospital and received three stitches for a cut above his eye. We, along with Metea Valley administrators, will be conducting an investigation."

Following Saturday's game, Petersen said Friday's incident didn't affect Smith's play.

"I don't think so. He's sick. Any effect he had was more his illness," said Petersen, who declined to go into specifics about what happened after the Metea game.

"I can't make a comment on that right now," Petersen said.

The Storm returns to action Friday hosting West Aurora with Blackhawks coach Gordie Kerkman one win away from becoming the fourth coach in Illinois history with 800 victories.

"We're trying to find out how to become more consistent," Petersen said. "We play well in stretches. We just aren't in position to carry that over for a full 32 minutes."

Marmion hosts St. Francis on Monday needing a win to clinch the outright Suburban Christian Conference title.

"I don't want to tie (for first)," Esp said.

John Radtke contributed to this story.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.