Boys basketball: Unbeaten Earlville opens Marquette Christmas Tournament with win over St. Bede

OTTAWA – A Griffin Cook hanging jumper 14 seconds after the opening tip, a Trenton Fruit mid-range jumper and a pair of Ryan Browder putbacks quickly established there would be no holiday hangover Tuesday afternoon for undefeated Earlville’s high-powered offense.

St. Bede Academy fought back from that early 8-0 deficit to get as close as one point, but the unseeded Bruins were unable to keep up with the third-seeded Red Raiders, who improved to 12-0 and moved on to the Marquette Christmas Tournament quarterfinals with a 73-57 victory at Bader Gym.

“We just had to settle ourselves down a bit, slow it down a bit, play better defense and take care of the ball,” Earlville coach Gerald Fruit said of responding to St. Bede’s early-game rally, itself an answer to the Red Raiders’ hot start.

Browder scored 22 points and added seven rebounds and four assists; Trenton Fruit canned three second-quarter 3s on his way to 16 points and four steals; Cook recorded 16 points; and the team’s other two starters, Adam Waite and Oliver Munoz, finished with eight points apiece.

“We have a lot of help with Griffin and Ryan, especially with Ryan’s 3-point shooting and Griffin’s ability to drive to the hoop whenever,” Waite said. “And Trenton Fruit was lighting it up the first half. They just played a great game.

“Our defense in the first half was a little sloppy, but the second half we picked it up.”

Earlville advances to play No. 6 seed Woodland, a 56-39 winner over Indian Creek later Tuesday afternoon, in Wednesday’s 5 p.m. quarterfinal.

St. Bede, which rallied back from down 8-0 early to make it 13-12 with 2:05 remaining in the opening quarter just to see Earlville reassert control with a 10-0 run, falls to 2-12 on the season.

“We knew the firepower they had and got down 8-0, but we fought back. That was good,” St. Bede coach Brian Hanson said. “We did some good things getting in the paint and trying to get some easy baskets, but they’re good enough that any mistake you make offensively, they’re going to tip a pass and Cook’s going to get a layup.

“We knew what kind of team they are. We just had to fight and try to keep it decently close to have a chance in the second half.”

Mason Ross scored in every quarter on his way to a team-high 13 points for the Bruins. Kaden Naumann added nine points, with Jake Kozak scoring eight and Phillip Gray coming off the bench to add seven.

Earlville outshot St. Bede 46.7% (28 of 60) to 42.9% (21 of 49) and outrebounded the Bruins 32-22. St. Bede was outscored 10-2 over the final two minutes of the first quarter and then by 11 points in the second quarter to take a 47-27 deficit into the locker room at halftime.

The Red Raiders’ goal this week between holidays is obvious: keep their undefeated record going straight through into the new year, along the way bringing home the championship.

“Whatever we need to do, we want to win this tournament,” Waite said. “We want to win this tournament and keep our record undefeated.”

For St. Bede, it’s a 10:30 a.m. Wednesday game against Indian Creek in the consolation bracket.

“There’s no practice time in between, we’re playing four days in a row, so it’s kind of a trial by fire,” Hanson said. “That’s where we’re looking for that ability to do things certain ways consistently.

“We’re still searching for it.”