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Boys Basketball: Mike Marietti, Providence down Joliet Catholic
Updated: January 31, 2012 10:30PM
The teams lined up to congratulate each other after visiting Providence’s 53-38 victory Tuesday night over Joliet Catholic.
Hilltoppers coach Joe Gura saved an extra pat on the head for Providence’s 6-foot-8 senior center Mike Marietti.
“I couldn’t be happier with the way we played,” Gura said. “But when you come down to it, the big man (Marietti) was the difference. I love him, how hard he plays. I told him that when I gave him the pat on the head at the end.”
Marietti finished with 15 points and a game-high nine rebounds as Providence (12-7) took another step toward a respectable seed in the Class 3A Rich East Sectional. The Celtics, who will host a regional, still must play Brother Rice on Friday and St. Rita on Tuesday before seeding ballots will be cast.
“We changed our offense a little at halftime, went to a three-low so I was down low rather than in the short corner, and that helped,” Marietti said. “But honestly, the big thing was that our point and wings played tremendous defense.”
Junior guard James Ragen hit 6-of-10 shots, including 4-of-8 from three-point range, and scored 16 points for Joliet Catholic (5-15), which hung within single digits most of the way, the last time at 44-35 with 3:17 remaining.
“Providence is well-coached, and they have the things that hurt us most, the big man who knows how to play and the point guard (Kevin Kozan) who knows how to play,” Gura said. “We scrambled to stay close. We changed our offense to a spread because I didn’t think we would get good shots otherwise against them. We got some good looks out of the spread and knocked down some shots.”
“I have a lot of respect for coach Gura; his team played their tails off,” Providence coach Tim Trendel said. “It was good for us down the road to see a zone defense like they played. We hadn’t been seeing many. Once we settled into our zone offense, we got Mike some touches and got straightened out.”
Providence welcomed back freshman Miles Boykin, who had not played since the sixth game because of a broken toe. He scored six points off the bench.
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