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Wheaton Academy quiets St. Edward

Cozy Rev. Edward Seisser Gymnasium can act as a valuable sixth man for the St. Edward boys basketball team.

It's a tiny bandbox of gym. Fans in the front row have to lean back when a player inbounds the ball in front of them. Sound is magnified by the concrete bleachers. One shout sounds like ten.

Wheaton Academy's plan? Keep the venerable gymnasium from becoming an added weapon.

The Warriors took the noise out of the building Tuesday by smothering the St. Edward offense from the start of a 53-32 Metro Suburban Red victory in Elgin.

Wheaton Academy (4-2, 1-0) jumped to a 29-11 halftime lead by holding St. Edward (5-4, 0-1) to 14% shooting from the field. The Green Wave shot 3 of 22 overall and missed all 7 attempts from 3-point range prior to the intermission.

"Defensively, I thought we did a real good job in the first half, especially of not giving up some easy shots and doing a good job rebounding," said Wheaton Academy coach Steve Thonn, whose team played man-to-man defense mostly with a bit of zone. "I just wanted to make sure our guys were ready to play so we could match up to their intensity at the beginning and execute after that."

Senior Marcus Bult scored 7 of his team-high 16 points in the first quarter to lift the Warriors to a 17-7 lead.

"We really wanted to control the pace, execute our sets and not let them dictate how the game went," Bult said. "I think the score shows that. We played good defensively as a unit."

The St. Edward offense struggled to find any rhythm against the longer Warriors. Their only second-quarter field goal was scored by senior JP McGuire after he missed his first 6 attempts. The Wave scored 4 points in the period on 1-of-12 shooting.

"We just weren't hitting shots," said junior forward Jackson Godfrey, who accounted for half of St. Edward's points "It happens to everybody, including me. We needed other guys to step up and, unfortunately, we couldn't do it. It's just an off night. I'm sure we'll bounce back."

Sebastian Oquendo scored 10 points and Luke Breier grabbed 6 rebounds for St. Edward, which shot 11 of 42 from the field (26%).

Senior John Rienow finished with 9 points. His 7 rebounds contributed to Wheaton Academy's 32-22 rebounding advantage.

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