St. Charles East opened up its season, and its annual Thanksgiving tournament, by defeating Wheaton Academy 76-64 Tuesday night.

The Saints started out with pressure defense that resulted in four steals in the first three minutes of the contest that allowed them to open up an 8-2 lead. Senior forward Matt Pierce had to leave the game in foul trouble at the 4:30 mark of the first quarter but sophomore Mike Bertrand came in and contributed immediately with 2 quick baskets down low and 10 in the first half.

"Mike Bertrand is a sophomore we brought up for a reason," said St. Charles coach Brian Clodi. "He's probably our best inside post presence with his back to the basket."

The first quarter finished with the Saints leading 17-7.

Wheaton Academy received its own spark off the bench from senior Mark Aloisio who kept the Warriors in the game in the first quarter scoring 5 of its 7 points. In the second quarter, Wheaton Academy was into the bonus with 7:37 to play and ended up shooting 14 free throws in the second quarter alone, converting 10 of those attempts.

The free-throw advantage kept them within reach and then junior guard Jeremy Parker got hot and scored 7 points in the last two minutes of the half to bring the Warriors to within 35-34 at the half.

The third quarter was tight throughout. Parker (15 points) knocked down a 3-pointer to tie the game for the first time at 42 with 5:57 to play in the third quarter. Pierce was able to stay out of foul trouble for the Saints and contributed 11 third-quarter points to keep St. Charles East with a 2-point advantage heading into the fourth quarter, 50-48.

In the final period the Saints' pressure seemed to be having an effect on the Warriors and St. Charles East began to pull away on a 3-pointer from Tyler Fishbune, which he followed up with two free throws at the 5:36 mark after one of what turned out to be 31 turnovers for the Warriors. That made the score 59-49 before Aloisio (team-high 17 points) scored Wheaton Academy's first basket of the final period with over four minutes having been played.

"We should have got him the ball more in the second half," said Warriors coach Andy Euler.

Saints junior Cole Livermore then took over and scored 8 of his game-high 18 points in the next two minutes to build the lead to 70-55 with 2:35 remaining in the game.

"We've got 10 guys that can get after it," Clodi said. "We're not going to back off. We are going to go like that all the time, up and down the floor. They made their run, we were going to stay aggressive and we made plays. Two weeks of hard practice paid off in the fourth quarter and we went by them and finished."

Euler agreed this was the critical stretch in the game.

"We didn't get back during that four-minute stretch and that was the ballgame," Euler said.

Wheaton Academy (0-1) plays Prospect tomorrow at 5 p.m. today in the tournament, and St. Charles East (1-0) takes on St. Joseph at 8 p.m.