St. Francis handles Aurora Christian

St. Francis coach Bob Ward felt his team needed to run its style of offense in its second boys basketball matchup with Aurora Christian this season.

Following a 62-56 loss to the Eagles on Dec. 12, the Spartans played more to their own offensive tempo this time around, culminating in a 66-52 Spartans victory in a Suburban Christian Conference game Friday night.

"The last time we played, I thought we tried to run up and down with them," Ward said. "Tonight, I thought we played more to our tempo. We made them defend us and we got some longer possessions that ended with guys driving to the basket, drawing a foul or slipping their screens and getting layups. I was happy with our offensive production."

Aurora Christian (10-5, 1-2) took its only lead of the game on a spot-up 3-pointer by RD Lutze midway through the second quarter that put the Eagles up 20-19.

The Spartans (10-8, 2-1) scored the next six points, starting with a basket in the paint by Jonathan Burke that gave his team the lead the rest of the way.

"I just thought St. Francis got after it for 32 minutes," Aurora Christian coach Pat McNamara said. "Not only did they play up and down, they screened hard, cut hard, got some easy buckets off their screens, and they really executed their offense. They're a much improved team from what I saw back in December."

Holding a 31-27 halftime lead, St. Francis used a 17-9 third-quarter advantage to turn a four-point lead into a 12-point lead. Nick Cooney, who scored seven of his nine points in the third quarter, started the run with a turnaround jumper inside, followed by a 3-pointer in front of the Spartans bench.

"Nick had that 3 and turnaround to start the third quarter and I thought he played a really good game," Ward said. "It was one of his better games."

Gabriel Johnson, who scored 11 of his game-high 20 points in the second half, kept the momentum with the Spartans at the start of the third quarter, breaking the Eagles' full-court press and going in for an uncontested layup to put his team up 50-39.

Mike Shaw and Johnson helped extend the lead to 54-40 with back-to-back layups off screens.

"Gabriel has not played a lot of basketball in his lifetime," Ward said. "He was a wrestler. But he's becoming a smart basketball player and is getting better every time. He's gotten much better at going to the basket and finishing."