Revved-up St. Viator handles St. Patrick

Like an older car, St. Viator's basketball team took a little while to get warmed up Friday night at Cahill gymnasium on senior night.

Once the Lions started rolling, though, there was no stopping them in a 46-34 East Suburban Catholic Conference win over St. Patrick.

With one conference game to go at Marist on Wednesday, St. Viator broke its three-game losing streak and now sports a 15-9, 6-2 record.

The Shamrocks saw their five game win streak go by the wayside and are now 17-8 and 4-4 in the conference.

"We had lost three straight," said St. Viator forward Patrick McNamara. "It's the time of the year when we wanted to get it going. We really wanted to win this one. We want to get into the groove going into March. We started running some good sets against their zone and the others found me open and I had some good looks at the basket."

The Lions fell behind 9-0 to start the game against some balanced St. Patrick scoring.

McNamara began to ignite for the Lions, hitting a 3 and a 2 as St. Viator trailed 13-5 after one quarter.

The Lions hit only 2 of 12 shots in the quarter and committed 3 turnovers.

St. Viator began chipping away, eventually tying the game at 17 with a minute to go before halftime on Kevin Monson's 3-pointer.

St. Patrick's Andy Velasquez-Camacho scored underneath with :04 left in the half to lead 19-17, but the Lions had already seized the momentum.

McNamara, who scored 18 points and had 4 rebounds, continued to drill into the teeth of the Shamrocks' defense. His basket with 5:54 left in the third quarter gave the Lions a 22-21 lead they would not rescind.

St. Viator opened a 29-23 lead but a 3-point play by Isaac Moore closed the gap to 29-27.

The third of four McNamara 3-pointers and a basket by Jake Stepuszek lifted the Lions to a 34-27 lead at quarter's end.

St. Viator started the fourth quarter with a 10-0 run to lead 44-27 with 4:52 left in the game, and the Lions cruised from there.

Cannella scored 10 points but more importantly secured 12 rebounds.

"Coach (Quin Hayes) told me that I had to own the boards, own the glass, own the paint tonight," said Cannella. "We lost some games that we think we could have won. We had to get it rolling tonight. I wouldn't want to go out on senior night any other way."

Hayes was proud of his team battling back when they trailed 9-0 to start the game.

"The kids really battled and played good defense. McNamara had if not his best game of the year, one of his best,' " said Hayes. "Sal had a little slow start, but he kept grinding it out. I told him during a timeout that if he kept it going, good things would happen."

Cannella blocked 2 shots along with his rebounding work. The Lions defense kept the Shamrock to 12-for-40 shooting from the field. St.Viator, after a 2-for-12 shooting start, finished the final three quarters by hitting 17 of 32.

Adrian Pierzchanowski led the Shamrocks with 9 points and 8 rebounds.