IC Catholic pushes back against Wheaton Academy

Austin Reed and his IC Catholic Prep boys basketball teammates wanted to bounce back from Tuesday's subpar performance against Fenton.

On Friday the Knights (5-3, 1-2) and their junior guard did just that, and then some, in a 57-44 victory over Wheaton Academy in the Metro Suburban Conference West Division matchup in Elmhurst.

Reed, who dealt with foul trouble against the Bison, came out and connected on 7 of 9 shots in the opening eight minutes for 17 points as ICCP charged out to a 23-8 lead.

“This was very important,” Reed said. “It was a struggle after last game but we pushed back and we fought. This was a big win for us.”

He and Garrett Cheng both hit 3-pointers in the second quarter, with the Knights extending the advantage to 41-14 by halftime. Reed finished with 28 points and also added 9 steals.

“We ran our offense and had good ball movement,” Reed said, “and my team found me when I was open. Defensively, we were running a 3-2 zone and we were reading their passes really well. We were jumping their passes a lot.”

ICCP coach T.J. Tyrrell was especially impressed with his junior.

“Austin got that start going,” Tyrrell said. “He played outstanding tonight. Offensively, he was outstanding and he was the key on top for us defensively.”

Will Lyles also checked into double figures with 12 points, while Cheng finished with 8 rebounds.

“As a team we were extremely patient,” Tyrrell said. “Against Fenton we were one pass and shoot. I thought we did a much better job finding open guys. And we had a good rotation defensively; we were talking more, picking each other up.”

After making only four fields goal before halftime, the Warriors (3-5) made a charge in the second half. Luke Manske hit a trio of 3-pointers while Jameson Teuscher and Jimmy Paganis also connected from long range. Teuscher hit four from beyond the arc and scored 12 points. Manske had 11 and JD Gunn tallied 8 points and 11 rebounds.

“We turned the ball over at least eight times in the first quarter,” Wheaton Academy coach David Osborn said. “You can't give a team eight easy baskets in transition. We can't flip a switch, we have to bring it from the get-go.”