St. Francis ends Wheaton Academy's season

Back in early December St. Francis' boys basketball team edged Wheaton Academy by 2 points. That was not the tone of Monday's Class 3A Glenbard South regional quarterfinal.

No. 8 seed St. Francis beat No. 7 Wheaton Academy 52-37. Coach Erin Dwyer's Spartans limited Wheaton Academy to 10 first-half points and clinched advancement by making 16 of 22 fourth-quarter free throws.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday St. Francis (11-18) will play No. 1 seed Burlington Central (25-3).

"We definitely stepped it up at the end of the game, where we were able to really finish, which we haven't done necessarily this season," said St. Francis forward Gabe Johnson, high scorer with 24 points.

"We've never had a huge lead like that. So really finishing our free throws and playing good defense at the end of the game was really what made it for us, I think."

A 6-foot-3 senior, Johnson immediately jeopardized Wheaton Academy's defensive game plan.

"I think he scored their first 7, 9 points (a game-opening 9-0 run) and when you're coming into a game trying to take that away and then a guy's able to do that, that doesn't bode well for you from the start," said Warriors coach David Osborn, whose first season at Wheaton Academy ended at 11-16.

On the other end Spartans guard Will Purdom, headed to Drake for football, contained Wheaton Academy ace Anthony Polinski to 2 first-quarter points and 4 in a first half St. Francis led 24-10.

"He had height on me, but I knew he was one of the players we needed to lock down," said Purdom, who joined Will Rowan with 8 points for the Spartans. "When he beat me we had help-side (defense) and they really helped out."

Polinski started moving toward a team-high 16 points. Aided by forward Tommy Blum, who scored 7 points with 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots, Wheaton Academy drew within 38-28 on freshman Jimmy Paganis' 3 at 5:25 of the fourth quarter.

St. Francis' Johnson and Nick Kurtyka answered by scoring the next 6 points from the foul line. Wheaton Academy went cold from the floor and couldn't recover.

Though eliminated, the Warriors improved from last season's 5-22 record.

"Starting off fresh with the new coach, new program, I think they're going to be real successful down the road. They've got all the tools, so I think we just kind of pushed them in that way," said senior guard Dan Vasko.