Warriors Battle Hard in 77-76 Loss

Game #2 • Tuesday, November 21, 2006 • 7:30 PM • Buffalo Grove Thanksgiving Tournament
Daily Herald Article • Statistics

In a game that was led predominately by Wheaton Academy, Lakes Community came away with the win Tuesday night in Buffalo Grove off of a last second three from a couple of feet inside the half court line. The Warriors responded well after Monday night's loss to Stevenson by beginning the game with a notable offensive performance jump started by senior Joel Malmquist (26 points) and John Albaugh (17 points). WA took an early lead, and maintained it against a good Lakes Community team. At the half, the Warriors held a six point, 36-30 advantage.

Two three pointers back-to-back in the third quarter for Lakes decreased Wheaton Academy's 8-point lead to a two point lead, as the two teams battled in the final minutes of the fourth quarter for the victory. The game stayed close or tied under the five minute mark until the conclusion of the contest.

After a made Stevenson layup to tie the game up, the Warriors had possession of the ball with 30 seconds to go. A timeout later, WA set up a final play which was knocked out of bounds, but WA retained possession with 9 seconds on the clock. Benjamin Euler hit a shot just inside the arc with 3.2 seconds remaining to give Wheaton Academy a 76-74 lead. Coming out of the huddle, Lakes inbounded the ball with 3.2 seconds left underneath WA's basket. The good-sized forward for Lakes took three dribbles, fumbled the ball, recovered and threw up a shot as the buzzer sounded, just inside the mid-court line which banked off the glass which was hastily ruled good by the officials to give Lakes a 77-76 win.

Joel Malmquist led all scores with 26 points and 5 rebounds, while Benjamin Euler scored 24 points and dished out 10 assists. John Albaugh shot 8-for-10 from the field totalling 17 points, and Matt Jones added 7. As a team, Wheaton Academy shot 61.2% (30/49) overall and 47% (11/23) from behind the arc.

Wheaton Academy had an extremely strong showing Tuesday night both offensively and defensively. The team drops to 0-2 in the young season and will face Buffalo Grove tomorrow night at 7:30 PM--a team with home-court advantage as tournament hosts.