Posted/Modified on Saturday, February 18, 2006 9:19 AM

Wheaton Academy knocked off the 18-6 Chicago Christian Knights who held a second place 6-1 record in the Private School League behind Timothy Friday night at home. The fact that the Warriors seemingly could not make a shot or finish layups did not help, but WA's defensive aggresiveness and offensive rebounding kept them in the game. The home team led for much of the first quarter, and was only down 17-15 after one period. A season-low two points for the second quarter in light of 12 scored by the Knights left Wheaton Academy down 29-17 at the half.

The third quarter brought a number of steals for WA, who converted on fast break layups to narrow the defacit. At the end of the third quarter, the Warriors had narrowed the score down to 37-31, setting the stage for a fourth quarter victory. Wheaton scored seven of their 22 fourth quarter points off of free throws. Jeremy Parker (10 points) and John Tillery (12 points) each hit three pointers that were crucial the game's outcome, and Nate Williams (11 points) added two buckets and three free throws in the victory.

Wheaton Academy had possession of the ball and called timeout with 2:16 left in the game, and attempted to finish the game out maintaining that possession. WA made their free throws down the stretch to slowly extend their lead to 53-44. Five seniors started and finished the game—their last home game of their career. Defense was the key to victory tonight, as WA held a team that averages 58.8 points per game to just 44. Coach Euler, who was battling illness, was pleased with his team's performance, who improves to 15-11 on the season and moves to a second-place tie with Chicago Christian in the PSL. The final regular season game is next Wednesday at Montini (7:00 PM) before regionals on the 27th.

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