Healthy Schwab helps lead Bruins over Cru

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St. Bede senior Kirby Sudaj flies around Marquette's Joey Ceja Friday night. Sudaj and the Bruins captured a 68-63 win on Senior Night at the Academy. (BCR photo/Chris Yucus)

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PERU — What a difference a healthy Alec Schwab makes.

The last time St. Bede met up with the Crusaders of Marquette the Bruin junior standout was hampered with a knee injury and finished scoreless in limited action, as the Bruins dropped a 61-44 loss to the Cru at the Tri-County Tournament.

Friday night at the Academy, a healthy Schwab wreaked havoc on the defensive end, tallying four first-half blocks, and offensively led the way for the Bruins with a 21-point performance as St. Bede posted a 68-63 win over the Cru in front of a packed house for Senior Night festivities.

“He played with emotion,” said Bruins coach Terry Nelson. “What people don’t realize is that he was injured last game, he couldn’t do things. There were people talking about how Marquette took him out of the game, the only person that took him out of that game was me, because I didn’t want to injure him (further).”

“I don’t believe we were ‘Schwabbed’ or whatever’s going around, but he made such a difference to his team,” said Marquette coach Kevin Schultz. “He’s just a very good player and you can see the other kids have so much confidence when he’s out on the floor.”

On a night dedicated to the Bruins’ four seniors: Ryne Denis, Kirby Sudaj, Paul Perona and Stephen Yucus, a pair of juniors in Schwab and classmate Evan Duttlinger stole the show.

Duttlinger showed why he is one of the top marksmen in the area, knocking down back-to-back threes in the third period to put the Bruins back on top after the Cru started the second half with an 11-0 run.

The second of Duttlinger’s treys came with Cru forward Joey Ceja bearing down on him, knocking Duttlinger to the floor just after the shot was launched. The long-ball drew net and Ceja was whistled for the foul, putting Duttlinger on the line for a chance at a four-point play.

The junior sharpshooter knocked down his free-throw to give the Bruins a 41-37 advantage with five minutes to play in the third.

“I really just tried to draw the foul, I wasn’t expecting it to go in, and then my guys came and stormed over to pick me up so I knew something was up. That felt great,” said Duttlinger, who finished 5-9 from behind the arc as he notched 20 points on the evening.

Duttlinger was not finished yet, as he quickly added his third trey of the quarter to put the Bruins up five, 44-39, with 4:30 to go in the third.

The Bruins held off the Cru in the fourth frame, going up eight, 62-54 when Schwab followed up a free-throw line jumper with a layup in transition set up by junior forward Ross Kenseth’s steal and assist, and holding on to the win as time wound down.

Leading the way for Marquette (14-8, 2-4) was Gerding with 24 points, joining him in double digits were Ceja (14), Kipp Caputo (12), and Ben Thumm (11).

Along with Schwab’s 21 and Duttlinger’s 20 point performance, Kenseth tallied 11 points and six rebounds, and sophomore reserve center Tony Yucus added nine points for St. Bede (13-8, 4-2) in what Nelson called “a great team effort and probably the biggest win since I’ve been here.”

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