SPLITTING THE DEFENSE — Edison’s Kyle Long goes between Madonna’s Andre Crossland and Reed Wilharm to the paint during Tuesday’s game. – Andrew Grimm

RICHMOND — For Madonna Tuesday night was all about runs as the Blue Dons started on a big run to get ahead and closed on another big run to put a victory away.

The latter was a game-sealing 14-3 stretch that thwarted what had been a mounting Edison comeback bid and closed out a 63-43 road victory over the Wildcats inside the Edison Fieldhouse.

Madonna started the game on a 9-0 spurt to take command early and never trailed.

Like the final one, the Dons (3-6) were able to come up with runs when they needed them. In addition to the late response, Madonna rattled off a 9-3 spurt in the second quarter after Edison had pulled within 10, then put together another 9-0 run in the third quarter to lead by as many as 18 in the quarter, holding a 15-point margin going to the fourth.

The Wildcats (3-12) did not go away quietly, though, as they rattled off an 11-2 run to start the fourth quarter and closed to as close as 48-40, but the comeback ran out of steam.

KEY MOMENT

With Edison on an 11-2 run and seeming to have all the momentum, Madonna’s Koleton Grishkevich was fouled on a 3-point attempt and went to the line and sunk all three shots to put the lead back in double digits. He made a bucket right after that to make it five-straight points for him and spur the Blue Dons game-sealing run, in which he had nine of the 14 points.

BETTER AS THEY WENT

While Edison’s offense got off to a slow start, not getting their first points until more than half the first quarter was gone, they did pick it up from there and out-scored the Dons in the second quarter and net 14 points in each of the third and fourth, though the early struggles made the hole too deep to overcome. The Wildcats did connect for six 3s in the game, all from the second quarter forward.

LEADING SCORERS

Grishkevich netted a game-high 19 points for the Blue Dons, all but one of which came in the second half. He tallied 11 of his points in the fourth quarter. Reed Wilharm netted 16, keying the big first quarter with half of his points in the opening eight minutes. Andre Crossland tallied 14 to put three in double digits for Madonna.

For Edison, Jackson McBane tallied 16 points, including two of the treys, while Bryce Rogers also netted a pair from beyond the arc and tallied 10 points. Isaiah Filburn also hit two triples and finished with eight.

UP NEXT

Both teams have a busy end to the week as Madonna takes a trip to Trinity Christian on Thursday before another to Toronto on Friday and Edison travels to Catholic Central on Friday night and Ridgewood on Saturday afternoon.

Madonna 63, Edison 43

M 18-9-17-19 – 63

E 5-10-14-14 – 43

MADONNA (3-6): DoBraska 2 0-0 5; Miller 1 2-6 4; Crossland 5 4-6 14; Wilharm 7 2-2 16; Cantebury 1 0-0 3; Grishkevich 6 6-10 19; Carte 0 2-2 2; Fuscardo 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22, 16-26; 63.

EDISON (3-12): Rogers 4 0-0 10; Long 1 2-2 4; Filburn 3 0-0 8; Wiley 1 3-4 5; McBane 6 2-2 16; Kirkman 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 15, 7-8; 43.

3-POINTERS: Madonna 3 (DoBraska, Cantebury, Grihkevich); Edison 6 (Rogers 2, Filburn 2, McBane 2).