Wheaton Academy stymies St. Edward
The Wheaton Academy boys have said it before - defense leads to offense.
St. Edward got hot to lead Friday's Metro Suburban Red contest at halftime, but the hosts buckled down to win 59-47 in West Chicago.
"It was just defense, for sure," Warriors guard Bryson Mitchell said, as Wheaton Academy (13-9, 6-1) remained one game behind 7-0 Timothy Christian in the Metro Red.
"Tried to play just solid defense, not sell out on everything, and then just make it hard for them and get easy baskets. We didn't have to work hard for anything on the offensive end once we were getting steals."
Initially St. Edward (7-15, 1-6) frustrated the Warriors despite lacking 16-point scorer Erik Hill, who rolled an ankle in Thursday's practice, and J.P. McGuire, hurt over break and out for the season.
Wheaton Academy lead 12-10 after one quarter, but St. Edward stunned the Warriors by going into halftime up 27-25. In the last 1:15 of the second half Liam Pomeroy hit a 3-pointer after Luke Breier passed out of a three-man trap, Jackson Godfrey made another, then Pomeroy again.
"I'm usually not a big scoring guy," said Pomeroy, who scored 13 points to 11 for Wilson. Jacob Breier and Sebastian Oquendo each scored 7 points.
"With our two main people out people had to step up, take bigger shots that we usually don't take. And it worked out today, except at the end," Pomeroy said.
The third quarter began with four lead changes and four ties. Tobi Sonuga's lay-in put Wheaton Academy up 37-35. Max Scharnowski followed with a deflection that changed possession. J.D. Rienow drove baseline to score, and Marcus Bult stole the ball and dunked it to help the Warriors lead 43-38 after three quarters.
"They were kind of playing a switching man-zone defense that was giving us a little bit of problems, and then we just weren't making a lot of shots in the first half," said Wheaton Academy coach Steve Thonn. "But I thought second half we did a much better job defensively especially against their shooters, and then just kind of took over the game at the end."
Jayson Rucker's steal and layup began a 10-2 Wheaton Academy run to open the fourth quarter. The Warriors led 53-40 with 1:58 left.
Bult scored 17 points followed by J.D. Rienow with 10 and Sonuga and Scharnowski each with 8 points. The Warriors outrebounded St. Edward 34-10 with 13 offensive boards.
"We're not winning but some kids are just young and they're stepping up and we're battling," said St. Edward coach Andy Zielinski. "It's hard for the kids not to have that success from a win standpoint, but I couldn't be prouder with how they're working."