Warriors put up United front in big-time setting

Euler scores 22 in victory over Aurora Christian

By Neil Shalin
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ben Euler’s first taste of playing in a pro basketball arena suited him just fine.

The Wheaton Academy junior forward scored 22 points to lead the Warriors to a 67-49 win over Private School League rival Aurora Christian at the United Center in Chicago on Tuesday. The win gives the Warriors sole possession of first place in the PSL.

Euler said the bigger court helped the Warriors run their offense more effectively after they got over their initial tentative play.

“The extra width and length of the NBA court really helped,” Euler said. “What won the game for us is that we just ran our offense really well as a team. We had great spacing. I wish I could play on this court every night. It’s really player-friendly. It was a great experience.”

“I thought the larger court would have helped Aurora Christian because they were a little quicker,” said Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson.

In the first quarter that seemed to be the case as the Eagles jumped to a 19-8 lead.

“I believe the United Center environment threw us off a little bit at the beginning,” Ferguson said. “We weren’t recovering well on the shooters and we were missing our shots. It took us a quarter to jell.”

In the second quarter Euler caught fire, scoring 13 points including a trio of 3-pointers to put the Warriors (9-10, 4-0) into the lead three times. The teams closed the first half even at 31-31.

Aurora Christian (12-5, 4-1) got back out ahead briefly at 39-37 in the third, but Wheaton Academy closed with a 2-point lead after Jared Cochrum and Euler each put together a three-point play.

An 11-2 Warriors run at the beginning of the fourth quarter made it 54-43 to put the game out of reach for the Eagles.

“We ran a disciplined offense in the second half and got a lot of stuff near the basket,” Ferguson said. “On defense Tim Rusthoven and Cochrum did a great job of denying the post and we played good defense on the outside. We also boxed out well and shot 15 of 17 from the foul line. Overall it was a really good effort.”

Wheaton Academy’s Joel Malmquist hit 4 shots from long range, three in the fourth quarter, to finish with 17 points. Matt Jones delivered all of his 12 points in the second half.

“This was a big win for us because we beat the other undefeated team in our conference,” Euler said.

Marcus Barnes and Phil Rutherford were the leading scorers for the Eagles, who also had the game’s leading rebounder David Campbell with 9.

“After the first quarter, we had poor execution,” said Aurora Christian coach Don Davidson. “And then we started shooting poorly and we didn’t rebound. It was a combination of several things offensively. We got stagnant in the second half. We weren’t moving, we weren’t cutting hard and we weren’t setting good picks.”