Boys Basketball: ‘Tremendous’ Tyler Ulis helps Marian Catholic stave off Marmion

Updated: February 11, 2012 8:37PM

When a game gets tight late, it sure helps to have a point guard like Marian Catholic sophomore Tyler Ulis.

After the Spartans squandered a large early lead and allowed Marmion back into Saturday’s nonconference game, Ulis took over.

In the fourth quarter, Ulis dished out four of his nine assists, hit 7 of 8 free throws and milked time off the clock with his flashy ball-handling, leading visiting Marian to a 51-41 win.

“He’s tremendous,” Marmion coach Ryan Paradise said of Ulis. “He’s got it all. He can handle the ball, unbelievable range. When you’re fighting back and trying to come back and the other team has a point guard that can take a minute off the clock without breaking a sweat and knock his free throws down, that’s going to be a really tough, uphill battle. Every coach would like to have a point guard like that.”

Ulis shined early as Marian (14-9) built a 19-2 lead. Ulis scored seven of his game-high 20 points in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Marmion (13-11) hit only one of its first 21 shots from the field.

“We got off to a great start and then we kind of let up,” Ulis said. “We thought we had them. We thought we were going to blow them out and let our second team play, but they played hard and came back and we just didn’t do a good job of handling the ball.”

Marmion cut the lead to 12 at the half, 25-13, and finished the third quarter with a 7-0 run, capped by a Pete Stefanski three-pointer, to cut the lead down to 35-30. The Cadets cut the lead to four on two different occasions in the fourth quarter, on a Colin Kavanaugh three-pointer with 5:25 left and again on a Jeff Garofalo three-pointer with 3:10 left, but that was as close as Marmion could get down the stretch.

“We fought the whole way through,” Paradise said. “To shoot that poorly in the first half and be in the game late was a tribute to our defense. But you’re not going to win too many games shooting the ball like that.”

Kavanaugh and Ryan Glasgow each scored 11 points to lead Marmion, with Stefanski adding 10 points.

Erik Crittendon complemented Ulis’ 20-point, nine-assist performance with 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Spartans. But Marian scored only six points off the bench and saw its big lead evaporate with the second unit on the floor.

“We have to find a sixth and seventh man off the bench that keeps that level up,” Marian coach Mike Taylor said. “We saw it last night (a 56-45 loss to Marist in East Suburban Catholic play) and we saw it tonight. Our defense gets worse. We have to get better at that. We’ll take the win, especially after a tough one last night, but we’d like to finish a little more positive.”

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