Boys Basketball: Marian Catholic falls vs. St. Viator

• Reprints

Updated: March 1, 2012 8:16AM

In a game in which every apparent good defensive play resulted in a foul, a steal that eluded a whistle finally stopped a furious fourth-quarter comeback by Marian Catholic on Saturday against St. Viator in Chicago Heights.

Danny Forde stripped the ball from Marian’s Tyler Ulis and turned a chance for the Spartans to cut into a six-point deficit into an eight-point lead for the Lions after Forde finished the play with a layup.

That took the air out of the Spartans and helped the Lions hang on 80-74 in East Suburban Catholic play.

“We are halfway through this and we control our own destiny,” St. Viator coach Mike Howland said. “I’ve been on our kids about playing more physical and we got that from them today.”

St. Viator’s Ore Arogundade scored nine of his 20 points in the third quarter. That’s when the Lions (16-3, 4-0) took the lead for good 57-49 after the game was knotted at 34 at halftime.

Kevin Walsh and Chris Myjak had 16 points each for the Lions.

Despite 44 total fouls, which slowed play, Ulis scored a career-high 38 points, besting a 37-point performance from his freshman year. He converted six three-pointers and had 16 points in the fourth quarter.

“We just have to play better defense so much and not foul so much,” Ulis said. “We usually get a lot of steals but with so many fouls we had to sit back on defense.”

Erik Crittendon and Joshua Cohn added 10 points each for the Spartans (11-7, 2-1).