Marmion shows its balanced attack

Updated: March 24, 2011 4:04PM

So what did we learn from Saturday's rivalry game between Aurora Central and Marmion?

The Cadets are not a one-man team.

Coach Nate Drye's Chargers (8-10) focused on taking Marmion's leading scorer Eddy Grahovec and his 18-point average away Saturday at the Sears Centre Arena in their Suburban Christian Conference crossover. In that regard, they pretty much succeeded as Grahovec was held to five points through three quarters and limited to 10 overall.

It left them vulnerable, however, to 6-1 Mark Berdelle as he burned the Chargers and their 2-3 zone for career-highs of 32 points and 14 rebounds in the Cadets' 61-49 win.

"They play a little different 2-3 zone," said Marmion coach Ryan Paradise, whose team climbs back to 9-9. "It's very spread out, they come out wide in the middle and we fiddled with putting (6-foot-7, 300-pound) Graham or (6-4, 345) Ryan Glasgow in the middle. But there's so much space, we thought Mark would have the skills necessary to turn and put it on the floor and make plays, especially against smaller guys in the middle."

Time and time again in the decisive second half, Berdelle would catch a pass at the free throw line or near it, turn and drive to the basket for a layup or runner.

Even so, ACC (8-10) battled back from a 30-26 halftime deficit to take a 38-32 lead with 1:42 left in the third quarter on a three-point play by Paul Kaminski (seven points).

The Cadets, though, closed the period with a 9-0 run to take a 41-38 lead into the fourth. It included seven points from Berdelle, including a three-point play with two seconds remaining as he put back a Nick Scoliere miss, got fouled and made the free throw.

"I thought (Scoliere) got fouled there but it came off and I did my best to get it back up there," said Berdelle. "And, luckily, it hit the backboard and went in."

Marmion, geared to stop ACC guard and leading scorer Ryan Harreld (15 points/game) and got the job done, thanks largely to the work of sophomore guard Alex Theisen. Harreld finished with just seven points.

"(Thiesen) also hit a couple big shots (a three and a two) in the third quarter from outside that helped open up that zone even more," said Paradise.

Robert DeMyers, a 6-4 junior forward, scored a team-high 16 points, blocked six shots and pulled down six rebounds to lead ACC.

"We just didn't guard the middle of the zone," said ACC coach Drye. "We completely vacated the high post and just let him drive down for layups the entire second half. I don't know what happened, we stopped guarding the high post. To his credit, (Berdelle) did a nice job.

"I thought our defensive effort in the second half was deplorable. It looked like we lost our wind in that little (third quarter) run and then we never got it back."

ACC was outscored 42-31 over the final two periods.

Graham Glasgow also reached double figures for the Cadets, scoring 10 to go with eight rebounds. Joey McEachern had eight for the Chargers.

"It just shows we have so much depth on our team," said Grahovec. "We've got other guys who can score, too."

The series now stands even after 70 meetings at 35 wins apiece.

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