Marmion struggles to contain hot-shooting Yorkville Christian
Brayden Long appeared surprised when learning he missed four shots all night.
Long, Yorkville Christian's 6-foot-3 freshman guard, scored 20 of his career-high 25 points in the second half to help push the Mustangs to a 90-74 victory over Marmion on Wednesday night.
"I just got to owe it all to my teammates," said Long, who also had five rebounds. "Just really moved the ball."
The Mustangs (13-8) trailed by eight points at the half, despite Jaden Schutt's 19 points. Schutt finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds while Micah Schnyders led all scorers with 27 points.
"Of our five guys that we play, four of them are knockdown shooters," Mustangs coach Aaron Sovern said. "Four of them are knockdown shooters, just plain and simple which is nice."
"We [also] have [Elijah] Fisher that can make a shot ... we have him rebound and doing the scrappy things," Sovern continued. "It's not out of the ordinary for one of the four to be hot. Unfortunately, against Glenbard West on Monday, all four at the same time went ice cold, so I knew we were going to have a good one today scoring the ball."
With the win, the Mustangs snapped a brief two-game skid.
Long and his Yorkville Christian teammates served as extras for the TV drama "Chicago Fire" over the summer. The airing of the episode was Wednesday night. The team exited a bus during a scene, so their next destination after the comeback win over was a local pizza place to celebrate and watch the episode.
Marmion (3-15) lost its lead with 5:03 left in the third quarter. Long's 3-pointer tied it 52-52, and his layup gave the Mustangs a brief lead.
Marmion forward Sean Kavanaugh broke his team's 0-for-5 shooting drought with a layup and 3-pointer to retake the lead for the Cadets, but Schnyders followed with a layup.
Kavanaugh hit another layup, but then Schnyders hit a jumper and a pair of free throws to set the table for Long. Long successfully hit a pair of 3-pointers to give Yorkville Christian a 7-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Marmion guard Carlos Liz converted a layup to pull his team within five points at the start of the fourth quarter, but the Mustangs continued to pour it into the basket. Long was 4-for-4 from the field in the final quarter.
Marmion's loss was its fifth straight.
"I think the most frustrating part about the game was that we had the momentum throughout most of the first half," said Kavanaugh, who finished with 22 points and 6 rebounds.
Cadets forward Nate Johnson had 12 points and 9 rebounds, while Liz finished with 11 points. Max Lambert had 4 points and 6 rebounds.
"We work so hard every week, and the results will come over time," Kavanaugh said. "Definitely the most important thing is defense and that's what we [let] up on in the second half, which killed us."