Wheaton Academy comes out to play

The Wheaton Academy boys basketball team certainly picked a flashy way to earn its first victory over Wheaton North on Tuesday night.

The Warriors, who had never once in program history toppled Wheaton North, jumped to a 16-6 first quarter lead and cruised to a 73-44 victory at Wheaton College.

Wheaton Academy (6-1) forced 8 Falcons turnovers while Wheaton North (2-3) dealt with foul trouble. By halftime the Warriors held a 23-point advantage.

According to Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson, the Warriors' suffocating defense propelled his team ahead more than anything else.

"We knew that they struggled with pressure. We saw that in some of the games we scouted, so we brought a lot of half-court traps," Ferguson said. "We got them out of their rhythm offensively - they ended up taking a lot of 3s - and we obviously got a lot of steals."

Junior center Tim Rusthoven all but echoed his coach's thoughts.

"We tried just to pressure them a lot and tried to get them to throw it away," the 6-foot-8 Rusthoven said. "We just executed on that and worked off of it."

Rusthoven notched a game-high 19 points for the Warriors, who saw all but one player register a point during a very balanced offensive night.

"Our biggest focus is being unselfish," Ferguson said. "We put a quote up in the locker room before the game that said, 'It's amazing what you can do when no one cares who gets the credit,' and we talk about that a lot with our guys."

Wheaton North coach Jim Nazos continues to gain a feel for a team that lost its top six scorers from the past season but remains optimistic because of the Falcons' strong work ethic.

"We've got a lot of work to do in the next couple of days, but this team will do it," Nazos said. "We are right now searching to be a good team like (Wheaton Academy), and slowly we will get there."

With all the familiarity between the players from both schools, Rusthoven and the Warriors felt great after finally gaining their first triumph over Wheaton North.

"It was fun, because you've got a bunch of the middle school kids that you know around here," Rusthoven said. "It's fun when there's a lot of people - especially in the snow, a lot of people came out."