Westminster Christian upends Aurora Christian
Mired in a shooting slump, Westminster Christian guard Elliott Brandon received some helpful advice from a pair of influential people - his coach and his dad.
"My dad always tells me that if my shot is off to keep shooting," said Brandon.
Brandon is a good listener.
The 6-foot senior connected on all five of his 3-point attempts in the second half to help lift the Warriors (4-2, 1-0) to a 64-55 Northeastern Athletic Conference boys basketball victory over Aurora Christian (4-2, 0-1) Thursday night in Aurora.
With his team clinging to a 48-47 lead midway through the fourth quarter, Brandon stepped up and drained a pair of wide-open 3-pointers during a 35-second span to put the Warriors on top 54-48.
"I haven't been hitting too many threes lately," said Brandon. "I wasn't really scoring from the outside too much but some of them (shots) are bound to go in. I just got hot tonight."
Brandon's shooting performance was a welcome sight for Warriors coach Andy Zielinski.
"Elliott was phenomenal tonight," said the coach. "He'd be the first to tell you that he has been in a slump and then he goes off tonight. It picked everybody up."
Brandon's first 3-pointer of the game gave Westminster a 30-29 lead early in the third quarter. His next long-range basket snapped a 32-32 deadlock with 3:16 left in the period, and his third 3-pointer extended the Warriors' lead to 46-42 with 6 minutes remaining.
"Coach (Zielinski) tells me to find the open spot on the floor and just shoot it," said Brandon. "He gets mad at me when I don't shoot sometimes. I just kept shooting tonight."
Junior forward Ben Versylus led Westminster with 18 points while Scott Graziano added 13 points. Nick Kleczynski chipped in with 8 points and Caleb Thomas had 6 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals.
"It was a great effort from everybody," said Zielinski. "We knew this was one of the top teams in the conference and if we could compete with them, it would be a statement for our kids."
"It's a tremendous win for us," added Brandon.
Junior Jake Wolfe accounted for more than half of the Eagles' scoring, finishing with 29 points before fouling out with 2:14 left. Tanner Dissell added 12 points.
"It was a tough night for us - we didn't shoot it very well," Eagles coach Dan Beebe said of his team's 37 percent shooting from the field (21 of 57). "It's a very young group that we have. There has to be some patience. We still have a lot of work to do.
"We'll get back to the drawing board and we'll be just fine."