Wheaton Academy Beaten at Buzzer

Daily Herald, WED Nov 22, 2006

The bank stayed open late Tuesday night for Lakes Community at the Bison Classic.

After being outplayed by Wheaton Academy for the better part of three quarters, the Eagles came alive in the fourth and a desperation 3 pointer by Sean Hertz banked in at the buzzer to give Lakes a thrilling 77-76 boys basketball victory in Buffalo Grove.

Hertz’s game-high 27 points included five 3-point shots.

“I took a last dribble, looked up and saw there was only 0.6 seconds left,” the senior said of the game-winner.

“I kind of threw it up there. I didn’t call it, but it banked in. I got lucky.”

Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson had a crushing bird’s-eye view of the final shot.

“From my angle it looked like it was going right,” the first-year coach said. “That’s a tough way to lose.”

After losing by 23 to Stevenson Monday night, Wheaton Academy (0-2) came out focused Tuesday and built leads of up to 11 points on the sharpshooting of Joel Malmquist, Benjamin Euler and John Albaugh. Malmquist scored 26 points, Euler had 24 and Albaugh 17.

“Our focus tonight was on rebounding and turnovers,” Ferguson said. “Last night we had 13 rebounds and 22 turnovers, tonight it was 21 rebounds and only 10 turnovers. I was happy with the effort.”

Lakes junior forward Kevin Guirand hit four consecutive shots to give the Eagles (1-0) a fourth-quarter advantage, then the teams matched baskets until a jumper by Euler with 3.1 seconds left gave Wheaton Academy a 76-74 lead.

Then Hertz got the inbounds pass, dribbled twice and launched the winning shot.

“I felt like we should have been leading the entire game,” Hertz said, “but we didn’t play well in the first half.”

“I was a bit concerned because they played yesterday and we didn’t,” said Lakes coach Brian Phelan. “We’re like the Bulls this year — we’ve got seven new faces and we’re trying to get everyone to jell.

“Kevin Guirand played well tonight, Chuck Kempf did some things attacking the basket and Marcus Williams provided some good energy on defense off the bench. Everything didn’t go as planned, but we came alive and I hope it’s like waking up a sleeping giant — because we’ve got 3 tough games ahead of us.”