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St. Viator puts practice into action, wins at Warren

St. Viator's basketball players might not have been enamored of the five days of practice prior to their road contest at Warren on Saturday night.

It was a different story for their coaches.

"The kids may not have liked it very much, but we as coaches loved it," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said.

Practice didn't quite make for perfect, but it was a huge help as the Lions hung on for a 58-56 win in the home opener for Warren.

"With the five days of practice this week, we got better offensively," Hayes said. "We had some good offensive sets, put the ball in the basket and had real good movement of the basketball."

The Lions led from wire to wire and built leads of as many as 11 points in the first half. Warren whittled its deficit to as few as 2 but could never get even or take the lead.

"We were chasing tonight and we were chasing in that we played undisciplined at times," Warren coach Jon Jasnoch said. "(Viator) played good patient basketball and we would gamble or take a quick shot. That was really the difference."

Viator (3-1) looked to have pulled away for good by taking a 49-42 lead with 6:08 left. But much like it did all night, Warren (2-5) responded.

A 3-pointer from Branden Ellis (9 points) capped a 7-2 run to pull the Blue Devils within 51-49 with 4:36 to go. But the hosts couldn't get any closer.

"I think our defense helped us maintain the lead tonight," said Lions senior Kyle Hammarlund, who led all scorers with 15 points. "When it got close, we got the stops we needed to get."

A major key to the success of the Lions was their execution and passing game in the half court. Of the 20 field goals the Lions had, 13 came from quick assists. That was something that Viator worked on during its five days of practice.

"We practice our passing a lot," Hammarlund said. "We have this drill called 'Purdue,' where the ball can't hit the floor, and we did that drill a lot the last week."

Viator built a 31-20 lead midway through the second quarter before Warren got itself back into the game. Senior guard Maurice Chambers, who led the Devils with 14 points, ignited a 9-3 run to close the half. He had a quick layup, then a steal and an assist on a bucket by Jayson Dorsey (13 points).

"We have the tools offensively and defensively to be a really good basketball team," Jasnoch said. "We just have to be more disciplined on both ends of the floor."

Viator senior Danny Walsh got the Lions going early with 8 of his 10 points in the first quarter. Walsh also added 9 boards and 4 steals as well.

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