After a double-overtime loss to East Aurora the previous night left the Warriors (4-7) emotionally and physically drained, they bounced back Wednesday afternoon for a solid victory over Chicago Orr. With the win the Warriors were still hopeful of a shot at the championship round of the 40th annual East Aurora Holiday Tournament.

John Tillery and his teammates started fast against the Spartans (4-9) and never let Orr get too close, thanks in large part to an 11-1 advantage in 3-point shots. Tillery connected on a pair of long-range shots while tallying 12 of his game-high 22 points in the first quarter.

“We knew we had to win to see if we could set up a three-way tie (in the Red Division) and get to the championship,” said Tillery, who logged plenty of minutes in Tuesday’s late-night heartbreaker with East Aurora but bounced back the next afternoon for 22 points and 5 assists. “It was emotional last night, so it was good to come back and win a game like this.”

Orr, which went 0-3 in the Red Division, trailed just 24-18 after one quarter despite Tillery’s 12-point barrage. But Wheaton Academy kept up its pressure defense and its rapid-fire passing attack for four quarters without showing many signs of wear.

“We had a real tough double-overtime loss last night that went until 10:30,” said Warriors coach Andy Euler, now 2-1 at East Aurora this week. “For them to come back and play as well as they did was tough. I’m real proud of them.”

Wheaton Academy led 38-31 at the half after hitting on 8 of 17 3-point attempts. Tillery, Benjamin Euler and Axel Cerny each had two 3-pointers in the first half as the Warriors whipped passes all around the floor until someone had a clean look from beyond the arc. Even while getting several players involved with touches on offense, the Warriors kept up the pace in order to meet the tourney’s shot clock.

“We love playing here because of the 35-second shot clock,” coach Euler said. “It should be in all of high school basketball. The last four, five games we’ve been playing real well and the ball movement has been great.”

On Wednesday Wheaton Academy had 20 assists with Jason VanderVeen leading the way with 6.

“They’re a good 3-point shooting team,” Orr coach Donnell Harrison said. “We lacked the defensive intensity on the perimeter and they just kept hitting 3s.”

Cerny scored 17 points and Nate Williams had 11 as the two joined Tillery to give the Warriors three players in double figures. Cerny also paced the squad with 7 rebounds.