Wheaton Academy 52, St. Francis 45

It's hard to top the week Wheaton Academy boys basketball coach Paul Ferguson is enjoying.

Conference win a week ago Friday. The birth of his third child on Sunday.

Now this Friday at the Warrior Dome in West Chicago, Wheaton Academy beat sectional foe and nonconference rival St. Francis 52-45.

"It's pretty good," said Ferguson, whose wife Michelle delivered newborn Caleb to join sons Ty and Benjamin.

On the court, Ferguson's diaper dandies survived 18 lead changes and 9 ties using a 1-2-2 zone defense that held St. Francis to 18-of-45 shooting from the floor.

The Warriors' patient motion offense produced 18-of-32 shooting on the other end.

"At both ends of the floor they were really smart, they really listened to the scouting report, they knew what we were trying to do," Ferguson said. "We had a couple long possessions, wore them out, and then got a layup or went to the line."

Wheaton Academy (8-2) held tenuous leads of 14-11 after a quarter and 29-25 at halftime when St. Francis (5-3) posted a 9-3 run out of halftime for a 34-32 lead.

Wheaton Academy's Quinn Gorski and Jared Cochrum then alternated on four baskets, two in transition, for a 40-38 Warriors lead entering the fourth quarter.

St. Francis went up 41-40 on a Jack Purdom putback and a Dan McCoy free throw. Wheaton Academy answered with 6 straight points to take the lead for good.

"We needed to be more patient and really run our offense," said Gorski, a sophomore who scored 10 points off the bench.

"And when we started to do that we were patient, waiting for our screens and coming off our screens hard."

Gorski's steal and pass for a Jason Roy layup had the Warriors up 46-41 with 4:01 left.

St. Francis cut it to 48-45 at 2:23 when forward Brian McMahon bulled inside. The Spartans were blanked from then on while Gorski, Roy and Ben Euler hit free throws.

"A lot of passing and nothing going to the basket," St. Francis' Bob Vonderhaar said of reacting to the 1-2-2 zone. "It was a problem."

A bigger one, Spartans coach Shawn Healy believed, came on the other end.

"The 1-2-2, it gave us some trouble but sometimes our defense creates our offense and we didn't get it done on the defensive end," he said.

Euler, who fronted the zone, scored a game-high 16 points. Roy added 11.

St. Francis' McCoy, McMahon and Vonderhaar each had 13 with McMahon grabbing 10 rebounds.