St. Francis, Wheaton Academy lose at 2nd annual shootout

Wheaton North found its silver lining.

Bouncing back from a crushing loss the night before, the Falcons eased the sting with a 56-48 boys basketball victory over St. Francis at the second annual Wheaton Shootout Saturday at Wheaton North.

"The toughest thing is to sit around for a week after a loss like we had," said Falcons forward John Bagge, who had a team-high 20 points and 8 rebounds. "It was nice to have a chance to come back out and play right after losing.

"We would have liked to have won last night, but this was a good win for us."

Bagge referred to his team's gut-wrenching 55-50 overtime loss at home to West Aurora in Friday's battle for supremacy in the DuPage Valley Conference.

The Falcons (13-3), though, showed no ill effects early against the Spartans. They stormed to a 23-10 lead after one quarter, which turned out to be their widest margin of the game.

It didn't take long for St. Francis (11-5) to rally. A 16-3 run opened the second quarter, capped by three straight 3-pointers by Dan McCoy that tied the game at 26-26.

McCoy, who knocked down six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 22 points, gave the Spartans their only lead at 31-30 on another 3-pointer early in the third quarter.

Wheaton North pulled away to an 8-point lead later in the third, but McCoy's 8 straight fourth-quarter points narrowed the gap to 45-44. The Falcons finally gained some distance with a 7-0 run over the next four minutes.

"I don't know if we ran out of gas, but those last three minutes we had some shots rimming out and it was heartbreaking out there," said Spartans coach Shawn Healy, who did not substitute the entire game.

"We didn't stop playing, and that's why I'm extremely proud of my kids."

Brian McMahon backed up McCoy's effort with 11 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists.

Steve Pierotti scored 13 points and Tom Fitzpatrick added 12 for the Falcons, who committed only 6 turnovers while breaking a six-game winning streak for St. Francis.

"I thought we started out real good, which was nice to see," said Falcons coach Jim Nazos. "You always wonder how a team will respond after a tough loss, and I thought we responded well."

WW South 47, Wheaton Academy 30:ŒBookend basketball got it done for Wheaton Warrenville South.

A dominant performance in the first and fourth quarters allowed the Tigers to pull away to a 47-30 victory over Wheaton Academy in the opening game at the second annual Wheaton Shootout Saturday at Wheaton North.

WW South (10-6) outscored the Warriors 25-4 in the first and last frames, including an 11-1 start in the opening quarter. The gap came in handy when Wheaton Academy (10-4) rallied within 25-24 late in the third quarter.

But after an 8-3 run boosted the Tigers' lead to 33-27 at the end of the fourth quarter, they scored the first 7 points of the fourth to seize command at 40-27.

"Since we were only up one, there was some concern," said Tigers forward Kendrick Perry, who had a team-high 13 points, 5 rebounds and 6 steals. "We just had to get the game back under control, and we were able to do that with our defense."

Five different players scored for WW South as the Tigers' jumped out to their first-quarter lead. They committed no turnovers while holding the Warriors without a field goal.

Wheaton Academy rallied through the next two quarters behind Ben Euler, who scored 19 of the team's 30 points. Euler scored 7 straight points as the Warriors pulled within a point with 2:34 left in the third quarter.

Perry and Sam Carlson combined for the Tigers' next 13 points as the team settled down. Carlson also guarded Euler in the final quarter, limiting him to a breakaway basket as the Warriors' lone field goal over the final 8:19.

"We had two quarters where we were just atrocious offensively," said Warriors coach Paul Ferguson, whose team has lost back-to-back games for the first time this season. "We fought hard, made our run. It just wasn't enough."

Carlson scored 12 points and Derek Babb had 11 for the Tigers, who broke a three-game losing streak by winning twice this weekend.

"Our kids play hard," said WW South coach Mike Healy. "And what we try to instill in them is let's play smart and hard. They're really starting to use their heads out there."