Fenwick runs by Marmion
Marmion's baptism by fire in the Chicago Catholic League continued Friday night with a visit from Fenwick, the No. 4 ranked team in the state's Class 3A poll.
The Cadets started well. Early 3-pointers from Josh Ruddy and Hunter Weber gave Marmion an 8-2 lead.
Fenwick, fresh off a win over Simeon on Monday, quickly stormed back. The Friars used an 11-0 run in the first quarter to take the lead for good on the second of Jacob Keller's transition dunks.
They were just getting warmed up. Fenwick went on a 13-0 run spanning the first and second quarters, leading 32-16 at that point on the way to a 90-52 victory.
The Friars (16-2, 7-0) finished with 14 3-pointers, shot 52 percent from the field, had four of their starters in double figures and 12 players score.
That's the type of team Marmion (9-9, 2-4) has to learn to compete against in its first year in the Catholic League.
"It is an eye-opener," Marmion coach Joe Currie said. "Our kids are not used to this. That's part of coming into the Catholic League.
"I think for the most part they are adjusting well. They are confident they can compete. We're trying to get some juniors acclimated to understand this is what you are going to see now."
Point guard Mike Smith led Fenwick with 19 points, 6 steals and 7 assists while hitting five 3-pointers.
"I think our defense turned it around for us," Smith said. "We came out too slow and didn't speed up the tempo and that's the ability we have."
Quinn Fisher (18 points), Mike Ballard (15) and Keller (11) also had big games for the Friars, who scored at least 20 points in every quarter and built leads of 48-26 at halftime and 68-41 after three quarters.
"They are a good shooting team and we were trying to stick with shooters," said Fenwick coach Rick Malnati whose team plays Riverside-Brookfield Saturday. "We didn't make a couple shots early. And then we started playing. That tempo favors us. We are much better at that tempo than they are."
Eighteen turnovers proved costly for Marmion who also was outrebounded 37-29 despite 8 boards from Matt Fletcher and 6 by Weber.
"We couldn't turn it over against them," Currie said. "I thought that was the difference in the game. It got out of control there, but our kids battled for 32 minutes."
Fletcher led Marmion with 10 points. Jon Young scored 8 and Weber and Mike Seraphin added 7 each.
The Cadets will try to rebound Saturday against St. Viator.
"I thought we got off to a good start, got some good looks," Currie said. "The second quarter we started to rush some of our shots and turned the ball over and the next thing you know it's 9, it's 10. They are just so athletic and they shot lights out."