Wheaton Academy shares win at ICCP
Just four minutes into Friday's Metro Suburban Blue matchup with IC Catholic Prep, Wheaton Academy's entire starting lineup had scored.
It was that kind of night for the upstart Warriors, who captured an impressive 72-69 road victory over the Knights in Elmhurst.
Wheaton Academy improved to 8-3 overall and 3-1 in league play.
"We've been doing a great job the last two games of distributing the ball," said Wheaton Academy first-year coach Steve Thonn, whose team was coming off a 73-50 win against Aurora Central Catholic on Tuesday. "The other day I think we had 10 assists in the first quarter and we were moving the ball well tonight. The guys were doing a good job of finding the open man and getting everyone involved early on."
Eight of the nine Warriors who played checked into the scoring column, led by the 25 points of Jayston Williams. Eleven of those came in the final quarter as the home team staged a furious comeback, cutting a 15-point deficit at the start of the period to a single possession game.
"We kind of built off the momentum that we had last game," Williams said. "We have a lot of guys who are versatile, we have a lot of guys who are around the same height who are long, and we also have a lot of guys who can light it up from deep.
"We are tough to beat. We actually haven't been shooting that well overall, but the law of percentages swung back around today."
The visitors knocked down 10 3-pointers, half coming in the opening two quarters as Wheaton Academy took a 35-28 lead into the break.
Four players then hit 3-pointers in the third as the advantage swelled to 53-38. But ICCP fought back in the fourth behind Alex Meurer, who led all scorers with 26 points. The senior poured in 14 in the final quarter, including a 3 that brought the Knights within 65-62 with 1:15 remaining.
"We only had 10 turnovers," ICCP coach T.J. Tyrrell said. "You would think if you only have 10 turnovers you'd be in pretty good shape. What we struggled with is we didn't do a great job of closing out on their shooters and we started off sluggish."
"But our guys really fought in the fourth quarter and got us to a one-possession game. This is only our second game with everyone together and our upside is certainly encouraging. We are excited about the group we have and where it could go."
Kevin Cheng added 14 points for the Knights (7-4, 3-3). JD Gunn also checked into double figures for the Warriors with 10 points.
"It's been a lot of fun," Thonn said. "The guys are working hard and after the last couple of years, they definitely want to come out and win a lot more games. They are working hard in practice and doing a good job of jelling."