Boys Basketball: Marist overruns Carmel

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Updated: March 1, 2012 8:16AM

The smothering full-court pressure of Marist overwhelmed East Suburban Catholic foe Carmel from start to finish Friday night as the second-ranked RedHawks rolled to a 51-38 win in Mundelein.

The RedHawks’ up-tempo style of play led to several Corsairs turnovers. Rarely was Carmel (7-10, 1-3) able to establish its offense and generate a high-quality shot. Even when they successfully broke the Marist press, the Corsairs appeared flustered and out of sync.

“Carmel is a very good team, and Brandon Motzel is one of the best big men we’ve faced,” Marist coach Gene Nolan said. “We knew that in order to come in here and get a win, we had to speed them up.

“Generally, we don’t use a full-court press all that often, but tonight the key was winning the middle third of the court, so we felt picking them up full-court gave us the best chance,” he said.

On offense, Marist (17-5, 2-2) drove the lane on nearly every possession, resulting in high-percentage layups or open jumpers. Marist led 26-13 at halftime and blew it open in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Heading into the fourth quarter, the RedHawks led 45-25.

“We stress patience and unselfishness on the offensive end, and I thought we did a really nice job tonight,” Nolan said. “When you have a team of guys who play together and aren’t greedy, everything flows better. I’m really proud of the kids’ effort. It’s never easy getting off the bus after an hour-and-a-half drive up, but they played with a lot of energy. Even in the final minutes the guys were hustling to every loose ball.”

Nic Weishar led Marist with 12 points, while L.J. McIntosh and Matt O’Reilly added 10 apiece. Motzel finished with 13 points, the only Corsair in double figures.