St. Charles East wears out Marmion

St. Charles East's depth is wearing teams down this winter.

The Saints went 12 players deep during Tuesday's non-conference game at Marmion, and 11 of them scored while 10 of them played at least 11 minutes in an 82-59 game that was actually close for a half.

"I'll give Marmion credit because I thought they played really hard and did a nice job of battling," Saints coach Pat Woods said. "But I think we have a little more depth than them and that helps. And the pace, if you're not used to the pace we play, you get tired at the end."

Marmion (3-19) trailed 46-35 at halftime, but the Cadets were quickly down 58-38 just a few minutes into the second half. They succumbed to the Saints' stifling defensive pressure which resulted in a few easy, uncontested layups on the other end.

"I won't sugarcoat it at all, turnovers were the death of us tonight," Cadets junior Nick Reid said. "As guards, especially myself, I need to slow down and trust my teammates and myself that I'll make the right decision."

With Woods rotating his players often, the Saints rarely, if ever, look fatigued, and with some length to several of their players, the Cadets often struggled in just getting the ball beyond midcourt.

"We always teach them to have their hands up," Woods said. "And guys like (Thomas) Ditsworth, Aiden (Sullivan), Chase (Monkemeyer) and (Jack) Settle are really long and can get their hands on a lot of passes and affect a lot of things and that's kind of by design."

It often looked like utter chaos on the floor on Tuesday, which is just how the Saints like it.

"Sometimes we may not be the best fundamentally but when you're flustering teams it's going to work at this level," Saints senior Luke Matheny said. "When we're playing as hard as we can with as deep as we are, it's hard for teams to play a full game with us. It might be close in the first half, but by the time the second half comes around we have more rested bodies than the other team does."

St. Charles East (14-6) broke the game open for good early in the fourth quarter after Marmion freshman Collin Wainscott's baseline jumper had cut a 20-point margin to 62-51.

The Saints responded with a 9-0 run, which was sparked by a couple of forced turnovers that resulted in easy baskets from Matheny and Zack Clodi. In just 35 seconds, it was a 70-51 game with 4:56 left to play.

St. Charles East has now won six straight.

"I was happy with how we battled," Woods said. "We didn't play our best game, but we fought through some adversity and give Marmion a lot of credit, they played really hard."

The Cadets also committed 25 turnovers.

"The problem comes when someone wants to do something by their self," Reid said. "I kind of wanted to play hero ball, which is totally out of my league. I've got to trust my teammates, hit the middle and find the open guy."

Sean Sullivan led the Saints with 17 points, Matheny added 14 points and Settle had 9 rebounds. The Saints received 39 points from their seven guys who came off the bench.

"The reason we're playing the way we are is we have a solid group through 12 (players)," Woods said. "Everyone can play and contribute and did tonight."

Reid led the Cadets with 16 points while Sean Kavanaugh chipped in with 14 points. Marmion made 11 three-pointers.