Girls Basketball: St Edward races past Marian Central

Updated: February 2, 2012 10:16PM

It was a wild ride in the St. Edward gymnasium on Tuesday night.

The Green Wave and visiting Marian Central combined to put up 114 shots from the field and turned the ball over 54 times. The frantic tempo was also matched by some crazy point swings, but in the end the style seem to suit the host Green Wave just fine in a 70-60 win in Suburban Christian Conference crossover action.

It was the third win in a row for the Green Wave as they improved to 17-7.

“That’s the type of game we like to play,” said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. “We like to get out and run the floor as much as possible and so does Marian Central. The key to a game like this is keeping your turnovers down. We had some stretches where we struggled with that, but overall we did a pretty good job of taking care of the basketball especially later in the game.”

St. Edward jumped out to a 21-7 lead early in the second quarter, but saw that dwindle down to just one 34-33 by halftime. Marian Central briefly pulled ahead 37-34 early in the fourth quarter before St. Edward eventually regrouped.

Rena Ranallo and Callie Johnson led the way for the Green Wave combining for 21 points in the second half. Renallo put the Green Wave back on top 43-42 midway through the third quarter with a transition layup and a free throw.

The lead changed hands two more times before Ranallo gave the Wave the lead for good 51-49 on a fast-break layup with 1:51 left in the third quarter. That basket ignited a 14-1 run for the Green Wave, which opened a 63-50 lead and never looked back. Ranallo added a pair of free throws and a three-pointer during the run. Johnson had a pair of baskets.

“We got back to making good decisions with the basketball,” said Dawson. “Rena did a nice job of pushing the ball up the court and getting into the lane to create. She brings a lot of energy to the court and the other girls feed off that.”

Marian Central turned the ball over nine times in the fourth quarter.

“The team with the less turnovers is usually going to win these type of games,” said Ranallo. “We went to a 3-2 and got a lot more aggressive on defense. It was just better teamwork.”

Johnson finished with a team-high 15 points for St Edward. Renalo had 14. Alexandria Lee finished with 12 and Kelly Tripicchio added 11. Shannon Wuensch had a game-high 27 for Marian Central.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.