On a night where offense was hard to find, St. Charles North’s Ethan Marlowe knew exactly where he wanted the ball to go in crunchtime.
“At the end of the game, down one, I always want the ball in my hands,” Marlowe said. “I trust myself to put the ball in the basket. I trust my teammates to get it to me, and they trust me.”
The senior forward found himself in that position Tuesday night in the final minute of a DuKane Conference game at Geneva — with the North Stars down a point.
Marlowe gained a step on his defender and got the ball from Max Love. He proceeded to fight through contact in the lane and put away what proved to be the winning shot with 23 seconds left.
The North Stars held on defensively to wrestle away a 45-44 victory.
“Ethan came up big at the end,” St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. “It was nice to have him in the lane, battling through a lot of contact and still able to finish.
“They were paying a lot of attention to Max no matter where he was on the floor. Ethan could get open in the lane and find a way to score, and he was able to.”
St. Charles North (12-11, 7-3) led 43-39 late in the fourth quarter when Mick Lawrence put in a layup for Geneva (12-12, 2-8) to cut the deficit to two.
Chris Suger followed with a 3-pointer with 2:10 left to give the Vikings a 44-43 lead. After a lengthy possession, Marlowe found the opening he needed to hit the game-winner.
“Once I saw the defender went for me, I had all the room because I had my defender behind me,” Marlowe said. “So, I just took it to the basket.
“That’s what we were trying to do. We were in the bonus, so I was just trying to get fouled or get a basket.”
It’s something Poulin has become accustomed to all season from Marlowe.
“He makes the right basketball play a lot and he’s unselfish,” Poulin said. “If we can give him a touch at the end of the game, I feel like good things are going to happen.
“He’s been playing well. He’s leading. He’s taking what the defense gives him. When we need him to be assertive, he steps up his game.”
Things were close throughout as Geneva stayed in the game thanks to the scoring of Lawrence and Suger. Lawrence finished with a game-high 20 points and Suger added 17.
“Mick was hot all night,” Marlowe said. “We started trying to run him off the line, but he got hot. He and Suger hit some shots.”
Geneva coach Scott Hennig was happy with the effort, if not the result. The Vikings lost 56-47 to St. Charles North on Dec. 11.
“We want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the year,” Hennig said. “And I think we’re getting there.”
Love led the North Stars with 12 points and Marlowe added 11.
It was sluggish, but a win on the road in the rugged DuKane Conference as the postseason approaches was Marlowe’s focus.
“We have played a lot of close, tough games that have gone down to the last minute,” Marlowe said. “We have all the experience heading into the tournament and all the guys are ready.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
