St. Edward Rolls, Advances to Regional Semifinals

St. Edward head basketball coach Eric Flannery was hoping for a perfect game Friday night, when his team squared off against John Marshall in its second-round tournament matchup.

So it should come as no surprise that he was a bit disappointed when, at halftime, he headed into the locker room at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School leading John Marshall, 48-18.

Was he upset that John Marshall scored any points at all?

“Going into tonight, we knew we were the more talented team," he said. "We’d like to play with a bit more focus. We needed to step up our intensity."

After halftime, the Eagles did just that, while getting several bench players key time. The lead was stretched to 50 before late three pointers from John Marshall’s Yeremis Caminero and Tamaine Chappell closed the gap to 45.

In a win that seemed almost too easy for his Eagles, Flannery felt that his team was sloppy at times. The team heeded his warning in the second half and came out blazing, opening the lead to 73-30 after three quarters. In the third, an incredible 9 different players scored for the Eagles, who moved to 16-5 on the season.

“A game like this is good because it allowed us to get some work in for guys that normally don’t see that kind of time. It was good to get guys in, a win like this builds their confidence,” said Flannery.

On the whole, the team took their usual workman-like approach and picked apart the Lawyers using a combination of fast breaks, strong defense stands and clutch shooting.

The momentum swung the Eagles’ way early in the game and they took it and ran with it. Senior Kyle Pisco scored nine quick points on three consecutive three pointers in the first quarter, and the Eagles never looked back.

Despite playing a more limited role than usual, Pisco led the Eagles with 13 points, sophomore Elijah Brown dropped in 12, including a monstrous slam dunk and junior Myles Hamilton dropped in 12.

Chappell and Caminero led the way for John Marshall, with 14 and 13, respectively.

The win sets up a rematch between St. Edward and their cross-town rival .

Lakewood came into the sectionals as the ninth seed, and has and last night beat fourth-seeded Normandy. The two teams square off at 6 p.m. on March 9 at Brecksville-Broadview Heights for the right to play for the sectional finals on March 12.

“Anytime you see a team twice in the same season, anything can happen,” said a cautiously optimistic Flannery after the game.

Coach Flannery will be sure to have his team ready to go.

                              Q1          Q2          Q3          Q4          FINAL

St. Edward          26           22           25           17           90

John Marshall   8              10           12           15           45