Timothy Christian upends Wheaton Warrenville South
Timothy Christian switched over to Fenton's Chuck Mitchell Tournament to push its talented senior class with better competition.
So far the Trojans have been up to the challenge.
One day after knocking off Fremd, Timothy Christian defeated another perennial strong bigger school, coming from behind to upend Wheaton Warrenville South 46-43 in Bensenville.
Matt Owens led all scorers with 21 points, knocking down five 3-pointers, as the Trojans overcame a 9-point third-quarter deficit.
"This is huge," Owens said. "To be able to pull out a win against another consistently good team, this will only help prepare us for later in the season.
"Our defensive principals, that is what got us going. Coach gave us a bit of a gut check at halftime and we were able to get some stops and make some shots at the offensive end."
Trailing 30-21, Timothy (2-0) closed the third quarter on a 14-4 spurt, highlighted by a trio of 3s from Owens and another 3 by Ben VanderWal at the buzzer.
The Trojans then held the Tigers (1-1) scoreless for over four minutes to start the fourth, extending their advantage to 44-37. But WW South answered with a 6-0 run to pull within a single point before Josh Harris made a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left. A Tigers' potential game-tying 3-pointer rimmed out.
Harris finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 4 steals.
"These have been two very good teams," Harris said. "Coach said we were going to have to come out with a lot of intensity and match their energy. They were really physical, but we were able to grind it out."
Timothy Christian wraps up pool play with a matchup against West Chicago on Friday.
"What I'm most proud of in both games is the resiliency of the boys," Timothy Christian coach Scott Plaisier said. "Going against Fremd and then Wheaton South, they are two really tough, physical teams who defensively they are tremendous and they both run pure motion offenses.
"The way Fremd plays their man defense and the way Wheaton plays their 1-2-2 zone defense, we might have gotten the best man defense and the best 1-2-2 zone defense we will see all year in the first two games."
WW South made nine 3-pointers for the contest and were topped by the 15 points of Yonatan Algawerash. Parker Brown added 12 points for the Tigers, who led 16-9 after one quarter and 21-17 at halftime.
"(The Trojans) are good, that team will win a lot of games," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "But I felt like we helped them with their run, we didn't get shots up on the rim and we were turning the ball over. We have to value the ball a little more than we have. We went through that lull but we were able to bounce back a little bit."