Familiar Face Scouts Wheaton Academy

By David Oberhelman
Daily Herald Sports Writer
Posted Saturday, December 16, 2006

Former Wheaton Academy boys basketball coach Andy Euler was in Elmhurst on Friday, on a scouting mission as his old team played at Timothy Christian.

In his first year at Covenant College in Georgia, Euler stands a great chance to eventually land one of the stars of the Private School League game.

Ben Euler, Andy’s son, made five 3-point baskets and scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Warriors to a 74-62 victory.

Timothy’s season high in scoring couldn’t counter the Warriors’ 26-of-39 shooting through the first three quarters with a 26-2 run spanning the first and second quarters.

“This is our best game of the season,” said first-year Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson, who assisted Andy Euler from 1995-98.

“We shot the ball well, we made good decisions, we moved the ball, I thought. We were really unselfish out there.”

Ben Euler agreed.

“I felt like my teammates moved the ball really well and I had a lot of open looks,” the junior guard said.

It started like a typical PSL scrape. Timothy Christian (2-9, 0-2) began with a pair of Kyle Lukianuk 3-point shots, and later got two more long balls by 5-foot-6 Andrew Logan to stay within 19-17 of the Warriors.

Wheaton Academy (3-6, 2-0) ended the quarter up 24-17 on a Joel Malmquist 3 and a Euler basket off his own steal.

Then the Warriors exploded.

Euler and Malmquist combined for three 3s in the first two minutes of the second quarter to pace a 35-18 lead. Timothy coach Jeff Powers took his second timeout in the span, but it did little, the Warriors going ahead 45-19.

“We thought that we would be able to play a little more defense than we did,” said Powers, hoping for tighter defense on Euler. “We didn’t. In my 10 years that’s the worst defensive effort I’ve ever seen.”

His Trojans rallied somewhat to go into halftime trailing 52-34 but started the second half missing their first 8 shots from the floor while Wheaton Academy went up 62-34 at 4:14 of the third quarter.

It’s Wheaton Academy’s day when a Warrior dunks. That’s what Malmquist did, the 6-1 senior guard surprising even himself by throwing down a 1-hander after a Euler steal and outlet pass in that final flurry.

“It all happened so fast,” Malmquist said of his first competitive stuff. “Ben Euler threw me the ball and I just went up and dunked it. I couldn’t believe it. I was like, What just happened?”

Malmquist and John Albaugh each had 15 points to follow Euler’s 23 for Wheaton Academy. Lukianuk and Logan led Timothy Christian with 15 apiece.