Wheaton Academy won't pass on win over Fenton

J.D. Gunn and his Wheaton Academy boys basketball teammates seem to enjoy dishing out assists more than scoring points themselves.

"It comes down to just having fun. You have easy shots and it's not all about getting your own points," Gunn said. "It's fun to get a big lead and it's just fun to see all the other guys score too."

In Friday night's Metro Suburban Blue opener at Fenton, the Warriors showed just how well they shared the ball. Wheaton Academy dished out 12 assists en route to a 50-37 win over Fenton.

"We were finding each other, we were moving the ball," Gunn, who scored a team-high 15 points, said. "It wasn't an individual's game, it was a team game. We were getting each other the ball in spots to score, layups or easy 3s. I think we all did a good job of finding each and getting good, open shots."

In the second quarter Wheaton Academy (4-1, 1-0) clamped down on both ends of the court. The Warriors limited the Bison (1-4, 0-1) to 6 points and held them to 1-of-7 shooting from the field. On offense Wheaton Academy opened a 14-point lead heading into the half.

"We were really pushing the ball," senior Jayston Williams said. "We really focused in on defense, rebound and pushing the ball. We were able to do that early on."

Then, Fenton found its moxie.

The Bison scored the first five points of the second half - a Diamon King putback, a Jose Alvarez free throw and a jumper by Andre Reed - to cut the deficit to single digits.

"We lost focus," Williams said. "We needed to do a better job of defensive fundamentals and helping out on defense as well as boxing out."

Fenton continued to chip away at the deficit.

"We talked about getting it in spurts, just getting a couple of baskets at a time, not trying to get it back all at once," Fenton coach Chaz Taft said.

Amari Reed found Alvarez for a layup with 2 minutes, 54 seconds left in the quarter that made it a 34-28 game.

"We ran our set plays very well," Amari Reed said. "We played really good team defense, we played a lot of help side and we worked together."

It gave back some confidence to the Bison.

"The first and second quarter were kind of rough and slow and we weren't up to par," Reed said. "The third quarter we were pushing and we knew we had to come out and get closer."

Fenton went into the fourth quarter trailing by 8 and with some confidence, but Wheaton Academy quickly dashed any hopes at a comeback away.

The Warriors limited Fenton to just 5 points in the first seven minutes of the fourth quarter and led 47-33. It was all because of a defensive switch the Warriors made.

"We were playing pretty good man (defense) in the first half," Wheaton Academy coach Steve Thonn said. "I really wanted to play some man (in the second half), but they did a good job attacking our man so we went back to our zone in the fourth quarter."

That gave Fenton fits.

"We've been practicing for their zone, because we knew they had it in their package," said Amari Reed, who finished with a game-high 18 points. "It was hard, because they have good size. Their wingspan just made it hard to get in the middle."