'It was jaw-dropping'

Despite Loss, Eagles enjoy playing at United Center

By ALAN FERGUSON Special to the Beacon News

CHICAGO -- Before the game, Marcus Barnes was in awe.

The Aurora Christian junior said his jaw dropped when he and his Eagles teammates hit the United Center court for Tuesday's game against Wheaton Academy.

The Private School League contest was originally a home game set for the Warrior Dome in West Chicago.

Instead the game became part of the Chicago Bulls' "Preps and Pros" promotion before their matchup against the visiting Atlanta Hawks. This past summer, the people at Wheaton Academy invited Aurora Christian along for a doubleheader between the schools' boys and girls teams.

"It was jaw dropping. To see the big court and everything, to see the Bulls Stadium and to get treated like a pro player with a big locker room and everything was amazing," Barnes said. "I was in awe.

"It's one thing to be here and watch a game. It's another thing to be here and play."

In the main event, Wheaton Academy took over the lead in the Private School League with a 67-49 victory over the Eagles, moving to 4-0 in the conference.

Aurora Christian (12-5, 4-1) held a 19-8 lead after one quarter, but the Warriors (9-10 overall) came back to tie it at 20 with a 12-1 run. From there, the game continued in back and forth fashion with five lead changes and four ties from midway into the second quarter until three minutes left in the third quarter.

That is, until, the Eagles offense became a lot more like the Chicago Blackhawks' and a lot less like the Michael Jordan-era Bulls.

Aurora Christian scored just 10 points over the final 11 minutes, 20 seconds of Tuesday's game and four of those came from the foul line. The Eagles hit 16 of their 58 shots (27.6 percent) from the field in the game with a 2 of 10 performance in the final quarter.

That was contrasted with an 8 for 15 showing (53.3 percent) in the first quarter and a 12-for-27 performance (44.4 percent) for the first half. Barnes had 12 points and Phil Rutherford scored 10, with Barnes coming off the bench for his double figures. Joe Redmond scored nine points, and T.J. McNelis added seven. David Campbell led with 10 rebounds, and Zach Johnson pulled down seven.

"We quit looking inside. We had a couple tipped inside when we tried to go to Johnson, then we quit going to him," Eagles coach Don Davidson said. "I don't think we rebounded all night. We weren't moving. We weren't running hard. We weren't setting good picks. It was a combination of several things. We just got real stagnate in the second half on offense."

The Warriors shook off a 3-for-12 performance from the field in the first quarter to finish 22 of 50 from the field (a 44 percent afternoon). Starting in the second quarter, Wheaton Academy's Ben Euler made like Jordan vs. the Portland Trail Blazers. He scored 13 of his 22 points in that second period, including three 3-pointers. Two other Warriors hit double figures with Joel Malmquist scoring 17 with four 3-pointers and Matt Jones getting 12.

The only bright side of the blowout was virtually every player for the Eagles got to get on the court and experience playing on the Bulls' home floor, especially when Davidson emptied his bench with about two minutes to go.

"It's a great experience for the kids," the Aurora Christian coach said. "Too bad we couldn't have played a little better in the second half." Wheaton Academy 67, Aurora Christian 49