Wheaton Academy 70, West Chicago 56

By Matthew McClarey
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The verdict is in: Wheaton Academy’s trip down to Texas can be deemed a success.

The Warriors boys basketball team traveled to Texas during the holidays in lieu of entering one of the many area tournaments, winning both games they played. Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson, though, wasn’t ready to call the trip a success until he saw how his players would respond back in familiar territory.

“I wasn’t sure how good the trip was going to be until I saw how we played tonight,” Ferguson said.

The Warriors treated their coach to a 70-56 victory over West Chicago on Tuesday night, overcoming a sluggish first quarter before eventually turning on the jets.

“I think they just got used to life in the South,” Ferguson joked. “It’s a little more laid-back, a little more easy-going, and so we had to adjust to the rough and tumble of the Chicago-area hoops when we came back.”

Wheaton Academy (6-7) shed its lackadaisical attitude when it took the floor in the second quarter, churning out an 8-0 run to take a 24-14 advantage for the game’s first big lead.

Several Warriors contributed to the run, with seniors John Albaugh, Matt Jones and Joel Malmquist attacking the basket as Wheaton Academy raced to a 35-25 lead at the half.

“I thought the key word was balance for us,” Ferguson said. “We were unselfish, we distributed the ball … and overall I was just really happy with our discipline and our shot selection.”

West Chicago (3-13) played a quality offensive game as well, but it did little to stop the Wheaton Academy penetration.

“They shot well, and we had a hard time stopping them from going to the hole,” Wildcats coach Kevin Gimre said. “That’s one thing we needed to do. We wanted to force them to shoot outside.

“We were trailing some screens; we didn’t fight through screens like we needed to. If you give them a little bit, they’re going to shoot it, and they buried them.”

Gimre made two changes to the starting lineup, as juniors Jon Reyes and Taylor Overman got the call at tipoff. Overman responded in a big way, notching 8 first-quarter points and 17 for the game.

“Offensively, I don’t have any complaints,” he said. “We scored 56 points, and for us that’s outstanding. We did a good job with penetration (and with) the things that we talked about.

“They really did a nice job, but we can’t give up 70.”

Wheaton Academy’s Ben Euler led all scorers with 18 points, and three other Warriors hit double digits. Albaugh and Jones had 14 each, while Malmquist went for 13.