Marian Catholic’s Brandon Hurt had a simple explanation for how the Spartans took control of Friday night’s game against Joliet Catholic.
“We always want to open up the second half strong,” Hurt said. “We knew they were going to make adjustments. We wanted to come out and match our intensity, just make sure we push up the lead.”
Marian Catholic started the second half with a 10-0 run to go ahead 38-22, withstood a fourth-quarter rally and earned a 55-44 East Suburban Catholic Conference victory over the host Hilltoppers.
Hurt, a sophomore guard, scored a game-high 16 points that included two jumpers to start the surge late in the second quarter and two more baskets early in the third-quarter spurt.
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Meanwhile, Hurt also held standout guard Jalen Jackson to five points through three quarters as Joliet Catholic (14-3, 2-2) had a 10-game winning streak snapped..
“It was just me being aggressive, staying in attack mode. Never force anything, just let it come to you,” Hurt said of his offense.
His defense on Jackson took some preparation.
“All week we were practicing for him,” Hurt said. “We knew he was averaging about 20 points per game. That was a big emphasis for me to keep him under his average.”
Marian Catholic (15-4, 3-0) also got big contributions from Myles Howard (9 points, 11 rebounds), Chase Adams (7 points) and Steven Ross (10 points) off the bench.
“I do what’s necessary, whether it’s scoring, rebounding, blocking shots, getting steals, playing defense,” Howard said. “Here it was rebounding the ball because they had some strong, physical guys down low. My coach really told me to attack the glass.”
Joliet Catholic coach Joe Gura was impressed.
“They did a lot of nice things,” Gura said. “I think the last minute-and-a-half of the first half and the first three minutes of the second half, like all coaching manuals tell you are the most important minutes, they dominated. That was the difference in the game.
“What I liked is when we were down, and they were about to blow us out of this place, we came back and had a chance to get it down to seven. To me, that’s the mark of this team.”
Jackson finished with a team-best 14 points for Joliet Catholic. Luke Mander added nine points and 10 rebounds.
“Jackson got loose later, and that cushion was the difference,” Marian Catholic coach Mike Taylor said. “I thought Brandon did a really good job on him. He hit some tough shots. But Brandon also hit some tough shots for us.
“We were getting the shots, but we had to be a little more aggressive going to the paint. Brandon kind of did that for us.”
Hurt knows it won’t be easy for the Spartans to continue their success.
“Our conference is very talented, I believe three teams with 12 or more wins,” he said. “We have a tough stretch coming up. Marist next week and Notre Dame after that.”
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.