Sabres fall in Jones' debut; St. Edward wins
Ben Euler scored 12 first-quarter points and fueled an early 13-0 run as Wheaton Academy raced out to a lead over Streamwood in Tuesday night boys basketball action.
Though the Sabres succeeded in slowing down the Warriors' high octane attack, and outscored their opponent in the second half, the hosts were able to maintain a cushion throughout and won the game 75-61, spoiling Tim Jones' debut as Streamwood coach.
"(Monday) night we were a little bit tentative in our game against South Shore," Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson said. "But what that did was give us a lot of confidence coming into this game."
The game closed out day two of Wheaton Academy's Thanksgiving Tournament, and served as Streamwood's season opener.
"I was disappointed with our defense, because I thought we'd do a better job of stopping people," Jones said. "I think it was because this was our first game, and Wheaton Academy is a very good team playing at home."
The Warriors led 23-8 after one quarter, and extended that lead to 38-21 at the half behind a stingy defense.
"That was the best aspect of our game tonight," Ferguson said. "We varied our pressure very well on the perimeter, showed a lot of help, and closed out well."
But the third quarter began with Tim Rusthoven, Wheaton Academy's big man, becoming ill and leaving the game. As Streamwood junior guard Tem Esikiel started heating up, scoring 11 of his team-high 12 points in the third quarter, the Sabres began to get into a rhythm.
"We had a bad beginning, but I like how we battled back," Jones said.
Ryan Kiesel added a pair of threes, and Streamwood looked poised for a run, though it still trailed 58-42 after three quarters.
With 4:42 left in the game, the Sabres pulled to within ten, 61-51, for the first time since the opening quarter. But Euler, who led all scorers with 27 points, stepped up again and helped the Warriors (2-0) put the game on ice.
"Ben's a gamer," Ferguson said. "We move the ball pretty well and that allowed Ben a lot of open shots."
Rusthoven scored 11 before leaving the game. In his absence Paul Werkema stepped up and scored 10 points and pulled down 8 boards.
T.J. Enno and Kyle Holder each scored 11 for the Sabres.
Boys basketball
St. Edward 55, Elgin Academy 30: St. Edward knew that it needed to make playing better defense a priority. That was evident in its season opener Tuesday, as the Green Wave held Elgin Academy to 18 points through 3 quarters and coasted to a 55-30 victory in the Westminster Christian Thanksgiving Basketball Classic.
Brett Manning with 13 points was the only player in double figures for either team, but 11 players scored for the Wave. St. Edward used a stifling pressure defense to force 13 first-quarter turnovers while taking a 16-4 lead.
"That was a point of emphasis over the summer," said Manning. "We knew we could score, but we couldn't really stop anybody last year, so we made a big improvement. We've been working on a lot of defense this year during practice."
After falling behind 2-0, the Wave forced turnovers on 12 of 13 possessions while building a 14-2 lead.
"We recognized that if we put a little bit of full-court pressure on them early, maybe we could open the game up really quick," said Wave coach Keith Chuipek. "So that's why we went from straight man-to-man to putting that zone press on. That really opened things up for us."
Steven Martin had 7 points and 8 rebounds for St. Edward. Riley Coleman, Josh Dix and John Sheehan added 6 points apiece for the Wave. Jim Waclawik came off the bench to grab 9 rebounds.
St. Edward's offense was less efficient than the defense, but was good enough. The Wave made just 3 of 15 free throws.
Cory Ebert scored 6 points for Elgin Academy before fouling out early in the second half. Daniel Vecchiolla had 7 rebounds and 4 points for the Hilltoppers.
"They're going to do a lot of improving," said Elgin Academy coach Everette Stephens. "That's what its all about, coaching-wise. It's a long year.
"At the end of the third quarter, I felt like I'd been through two games."
-- Allen Oshinski
Westminster Christian 46, Kirkland 21: Bruce Firchau had a simple message for the his team Tuesday night: Slow down.
The Westminster Christian boys basketball team shut out Kirkland-Hiawatha in first quarter and cruised to a 46-21 victory on the first night of the inaugural Westminster Christian Thanksgiving Classic. But Firchau was anything but happy.
"At practice we talked and talked about playing too fast," Firchau said. "Overall I thought we played sloppy."
The Warriors opened a 10-0 lead in the opening 4½ minutes thanks to 5 points from Joel Benson and pressuring defense as the Hawks had 7 turnovers and a missed field goal in their first 8 possessions. Westminster was unable, however, to increase the lead and took that same 10-0 into the second quarter.
Kirkland-Hiawatha was forced into 10 turnovers and went 0-for-5 from the floor in the opening 8 minutes.
"We played great defense," said Westminster senior Tyler Beachler, who had 10 points, 8 rebounds and 5 steals. "But we were way too quick on offense. We were too excited I guess."
Nate Clark hit 2 free throws with 6:29 left in the second quarter for the Hawks' first points. Ricky Failla added their first basket 20 seconds later as Kirkland-Hiawatha cut the Warriors' lead to 10-4.
A steal and layup from Beachler with 5:35 remaining in the half ended a 6-minute scoring drought for Westminster, which took a 16-6 lead into halftime.
The lead could have been much larger if the Warriors converted on most of the Hawks' 17 turnovers, but turnovers or missed shots of their own kept the score close.
"I was not happy with us offensively," Firchau said. "I don't think we ran the lanes well when we had fastbreak opportunities. We made the pass too early or tried to make what I would call a non-fundamental pass."
Westminster, which had 16 turnovers and missed several easy looks, broke the game open by scoring the 14 of the first 16 points of the second half to take a 30-8 lead. The Warriors led by as many as 28 in the fourth quarter and forced 32 turnovers.
But the Warriors know they can get better, especialy at the free-throw line, where went 5-for-15.
"The things we need to work on really showed in this game," Beachler said. "It's a good thing that it happened in the first game. No we can work on them and get better from here."
Benson finished with a game-high 16 points and 12 rebounds, 9 offense.
-- Brian Schaumburg
Mundelein 82, Prairie Ridge 43: The Mundelein boys basketball program has developed a reputation for playing at a frenetic pace and scoring boatloads of points.
What about the other half of the game?
"People have said Mundelein doesn't play defense," senior guard Andy Rochon said. "We want to show we play great defense."
The season is only two games old, but the Mustangs already are doing a good job of proving this point. Against Prairie Ridge on Tuesday night in the second-round of the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament, the Mustangs forced 34 turnovers in an 82-43 victory.
Mundelein opened the season Monday with a 90-49 victory over Barrington.
"It's a (great) feeling when they can't get the ball past half court," Rochon said.
Mundelein led 20-9 after the first quarter but quickly increased its lead to 25 points by halftime. In the third quarter, the Mustangs (2-0) limited Prairie Ridge (0-2) to five points.
"We could definitely feel them wearing down," Mundelein senior Navjot Singh said.
Mundelein coach Richard Knar is excited with the way the Mustangs are playing defense.
"We're applying pressure on the ball and in the passing lanes," he said. "Our offense is generated from our defense. We're not settling for the 3-pointer as much, and we're getting to the free-throw line more."
Singh scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Sophomore Ben Brust, a transfer from Hersey who scored 24 points against Barrington, contributed 16 points. Senior Kevin Blackowicz (13 points), junior Kevin Barber (11 points) and Rochon (10 points) also reached double figures.
Prairie Ridge senior guard Bryan McGinn scored a team-high 13 points.
"(Mundelein) played really hard, and I wish our kids would have stood up (more)," Prairie Ridge coach Corky Card said. "They limited us to one shot and did whatever they wanted."
-- Bob Gosman
Girls basketball
Geneva 72, Elgin 27: It was another high-scoring game for the Vikings, who beat the Maroons 72-27 in the second day of their own Thanksgiving tournament Tuesday.
"We have nine new players to the varsity, and I'm really happy with the way they are coming together," Geneva coach Gina Nolan, whose Vikings scored 69 points in the first game of the tournament against Antioch. "They are learning their roles, learning the offense and defense. They are showing how hard they've worked in the last few weeks and it's nice to see."
"We are all still learning to play together because we have a lot of new players to varsity, such as myself," added Geneva's Kelsey Augustine. "We are coming together well. We work really hard in practice, and it shows during the games."
The Vikings jumped out to an 18-5 first quarter lead and never looked back. After Elgin's Brandi Hernandez opened the game with a 3-pointer, Geneva's Nicole Gregory scored the next 6 points.
The Vikings capped the first quarter on a 12-0 run, led by Taylor Whitley's 6 points.
Geneva (2-0) continued their run in the second quarter with a 10-0 run with most of the bench in the game.
Twenty-two Geneva points later, Elgin found itself in a 28-5 hole with less than three minutes left in the first half.
Whitley led all scorers with 19 points and 7 steals. Off the bench, Kelsey Augustine contributed 10 points and 5 rebounds for Geneva.
As a team, the Vikings finished with 23 steals and five different players posted 5 or more rebounds with Olivia Laster leading the way with 7.
Hernandez led Elgin (0-3) with 10 points and 3 steals.
"I think one thing we can take from this is that we can sit and look back at tape and watch them," Elgin coach Angie Hudson said. "They are definitely a good team to watch. We can learn from them. Hats off to them."
-- Christine Bolin
Woodstock 46, Burlington Central 41: Melanie Laird scored 13 points and Jordan Maisto added 10 but the Rockets (3-2) fell to Woodstock at the BC tournament.
Cory Bazany added 9 points for Central while Molly Whiting had a game-high 25 points for Woodstock.
Elgin Academy 54, Woodlands 10: Bianca Swegler had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Allison Clark added 15 points as the Hilltoppers (2-1) rolled to an easy win in the EA tournament.
Buffalo Grove 45, CL South 31: Jessica Taldone scored 17 of Crystal Lake South's points but no other Gator had more than 3 points as CLS (2-1) fell to powerful Buffalo Grove, the Daily Herald area's No. 1 ranked team, at the BG tournament.
Elk Grove 65, South Elgin 59: Geneieve Johnson scored 12 points and Alexa Kruel 8 to lead South Elgin (1-4) in this loss at the Fenton tournament.
Providence 55, Hampshire 46: Hampshire (1-2) fell behind 33-25 at halftime and couldn't recover in this Geneva tournament game. Mallory Koster had 13 points, Chrissy Heine 12 and Gianina Estocado 11 to lead the Whip-Purs.
Oak Park 55, Bartlett 50: Becca Cronin had 15 points and Alexa Tovella 10 to lead Bartlett (0-3), but the Hawks fell at the Naperville Central/Benet tournament. Jacki Gulczynski added 8 points for Bartlett.