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Wheaton Academy dunks Aurora Christian

It was Wes Koral's best missed dunk ever.

The Wheaton Academy guard with the 44-inch vertical leap swooped in to rebound a miss and rattle it home with 2.6 seconds left, the winning basket in the host Warriors' 55-52 victory over Aurora Christian on Friday in West Chicago.

Aurora Christian turned the ball over trying to get it to star guard Dean Danos and Wheaton Academy's Luke Johnson added a free throw as Wheaton Academy (13-1, 4-0) maintained its Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division lead over the Eagles (8-9, 3-2).

“I was kind of trying to dunk it, but I didn't want to try to dunk too hard so I missed or something. I just kind of laid it in,” said Koral, the 6-3 transfer from Joliet Catholic who led all scorers with 25 points, 6 of them on prior dunks.

Out of a timeout with 1:04 left in the game, Wheaton Academy ran a minute off the clock to get the shot it wanted — the 6-foot-9 Johnson deep in the lane.

It worked great, except Johnson's shot bounced off the back iron and rolled off the front lip.

Warriors coach Paul Ferguson still liked the result.

“We were talking to the guys all night about when Luke goes up to attack the glass,” Ferguson said. “Wes just made a really athletic play to attack the glass and finish it.”

Wheaton Academy made just 1 of 15 3-point tries, but Johnson's size and Koral's athleticism can make up for that.

Johnson, who ironically transferred from Aurora Christian after his sophomore year, overcame collapsing zone defense to score 11 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.

A key to defeating a shorter Eagles squad, Ferguson had said, was points in the paint. Johnson needed reminding.

“In the first half I kept kicking it out so at halftime (Ferguson) got mad, really got in my face about it and told me to start taking it up a little bit,” said Johnson, who grabbed 10 rebounds, second to teammate Tate Fritz's game-high 12.

The fourth quarter saw seven lead changes and four ties. A drive with 1:19 left by Danos, who scored 23 points, evened the score 52-52.

Eagles coach Steve Hanson said: “I felt like if we could believe that we could beat them, early, that we would have a chance. And I think we did. It was a great game.”

Hanson's plan was for Danos to get one more shot.

“I was going to swing around and then hopefully get a two-dribble pull up about 10 feet outside the 3-point line,” said Danos, a Richards transfer followed by Ryan McQuade's 11 points and C.J. Schutt with 10. “But I didn't catch the ball. We played well, though.”

Images: Wheaton Academy vs. Aurora Christian boys basketball

  Tate Fritz,left, of WheatonAcademy and CJ Schutt of Aurora during the Aurora Christian vs. Wheaton Academy boys basketball game Friday in West Chicago. PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.com
PAUL MICHNA/Pmichna@dailyherald.comCJ Schutt of Aurora goes for the rebound during the Aurora Christian vs. Wheaton Academy boys basketball game Friday in West Chicago.