advertisement

Much closer, but Wheaton Academy denies St. Edward again

What a difference seven weeks makes.

Last time St. Edward squared off against Wheaton Academy, the wheels on the bus came off early, and often. The Green Wave was barely a trickle that night in early December, scoring all of 19 points en route to an embarrassing 44-point loss.

Monday night in Elgin, it was the same two teams, but a much different story.

The Warriors still came away with a win, but this time it was 55-53 and worlds removed from the first tilt between the two in respectability. In fact, if it weren't for a poor performance from the free throw line - St. Edward made just 4 of 9 from the stripe - the Green Wave might well have crashed over their guests.

St. Edward sophomore Erik Hill, a 6-0 guard, poured in 19 points, including 4 of 8 from 3-point range, to lead all scorers for St. Edward, while his older brother, David, and J.P. McGuire added 9 apiece. Wheaton Academy's attack was much more balanced, with juniors Oluwatobi Sonuga scoring 14, Marcus Bult 12, and senior Jack Dykema 10.

The Warriors, who improved to 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the Metro Suburban Conference, out-rebounded St. Edward (11-12, 3-7), 22-13.

St. Edward coach Andy Zielinski was proud of his charges.

"We look over at them and we're giving up four or six inches in some positions," Zielinski said. "But we went toe-to-toe with them and didn't quit."

Not only did they not quit, but they very nearly pulled out the victory.

"We knew this was going to be a much different game," explained Wheaton Academy coach Steve Thonn, "and we were right: this was a heckuva game. They've got a lot of good players, but our offense was really off in the first half. We had 11 or 12 turnovers. So in the second half we decided to get the ball inside more, where we felt we had a bit of an advantage. We finished much better."

At the outset it looked like maybe another serious drubbing might be in store. St. Edward trailed 6-0 early and didn't get on the scoreboard until McGuire dropped in a 12-foot jumper with 3:22 to play in the first. That settled the Green Wave down and they ended the first quarter down 12-6.

The second was a back-and-forth quarter, and slowly St. Edward crawled back into it. After Dykema drilled his only trey of the game to put the Warriors up 17-10 with 5:31 to go until halftime, the Green Wave's Daniel Parks answered with a bomb of his own to cut it to four. The deficit was halved, to 22-20, when McGuire converted a 17-footer with just under two minutes left in the quarter.

Wheaton Academy answered with a layup by Sonuga and a 3-pointer by Bult to get the lead back to seven at 27-20. But Sebastian Oquendo scored on a layup off a steal and McGuire put-back a wild 3 try by Erik Hill to make it 27-24 at halftime.

After the break Parks pulled the Green Wave within a point with a driving layup, but Gerald Blackmon (6 points) and Bult responded with back-to-back 3-pointers to once again put the Warriors on top by seven, 33-26.

That's when St. Edward really kicked it in, and when Aidan Franklin dropped in a turnaround jumper in the lane with 3:01 left in the quarter it capped a 9-0 run and gave the Green Wave their first lead of the game at 35-33.

Sonuga immediately charged back, first making a layup on a coast-to-coast drive and then adding another off an inbound play to put the Warriors back on top, 37-35 with just over two minutes left in the frame. But Erik Hill cooly converted a pair of 3-pointers from the right side to close the quarter and give St. Edward a tenuous 41-37 lead after 24 minutes.

The lead was still four, 44-40, when Warriors senior center Sebastian Pares (5 points) kicked off an 8-0 run that culminated on another Sonuga steal and length-of-the-court drive to give Wheaton Academy a 48-44 lead with 4:28 left to play.

Dykema converted a baseline drive, was fouled by Jackson Godfrey, and made the free throw to put the Warriors on top 51-46, but still the Green Wave refused to ebb.

With Wheaton going to the free-throw line the remainder of the game, McGuire nailed a 3 with two and a half minutes left to make it 51-49. After a pair of free throws by Bult, Erik Hill hit another trey, this from the right wing, to cut the St. Edward deficit to 53-52 with 11.5 seconds to play.

Sonuga calmly converted both ends of a 1-and-1 with 9.4 seconds on the clock, and then exactly 9 seconds later Erik Hill was fouled shooting a 3-pointer that would have tied the game. After he missed the first he made the second, and his intentional miss of the third fell safely into the hands of Pares to secure the win.

"Our goal now is to finish above .500 for the season and be tough for whomever we play in the regional," said Zielinski.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.