Wheaton Academy makes it look easy

Sometimes it seems as if Wheaton Academy isn't competing against its opponents so much as it's competing against itself.

The Warriors earned another easy victory Friday night in West Chicago, defeating Immaculate Conception 67-55 in a game that tightened up long after the starters left the floor.

"They're very, very good," Knights coach Darren Howard said. "I told (Warriors coach Paul Ferguson) in the summertime that I thought they had a good shot to win it all and I still believe that. They're definitely the class of the conference this year."

Wheaton Academy (18-1, 5-0 Suburban Christian Gold) led 16-12 with two minutes left in the first quarter when a Chris Lesner basket started the Warriors on a 9-0 run to finish a period in which 6-foot-9 senior Tim Rusthoven scored 14 points.

"Tim always has a big first quarter," said Wheaton Academy senior Anthony Ritchie. "Tim always has big quarters in general."

The Warriors only got better in the second quarter, scoring the first 11 points and eventually building a 43-15 lead.

"Our first quarters we have kind of struggled this year," Ritchie said. "We just try to jump all over teams in the first quarter where we can. Our defense is not where it should be if we want to compete with real high-level teams in the area. But yeah, we did play well."

The Warriors shot the ball very well in the first half, making 75 percent of their field goals, 80 percent of their 3-pointers.

"We shot the ball well," Ferguson said. "We were very efficient offensively, and I thought we had a great second quarter. Kind of put the game out of reach in the second quarter. After that we were a little bit sloppy in the second half defensively, but overall it was a good game for us."

Immaculate Conception (11-11, 4-3) whittled the lead down to 15 early in the third quarter before the Warriors pulled away again, leading 61-36 going into the fourth quarter and pulling their starters.

Rusthoven scored a game-high 22 points, grabbed 8 rebounds and dished 5 assists in just 18 minutes of action. Ritchie added 11 points for the Warriors. Demetrius Mobley led IC with 19 points, and Anthony Loss added 10.

"We played pretty good defense," Howard said. "We had a couple of lapses in the first quarter, a little bit into the second quarter. But I really liked the way we ran our offense. We were patient. We got good shots."