Wheaton Academy suffers first loss of season

Murphy's Law finally caught up with Wheaton Academy.

The Warriors couldn't recover from a 20-2 Coal City run, a 64-52 loss in Monday's semifinal of the Lisle Holiday Tournament knocking Wheaton Academy from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Wheaton Academy (11-1) will play St. Edward tonight for third place.

"I guess in some respects you can say we got the bulls-eye off of our back," Warriors coach Beth Mitchell said. "We need to take the loss, learn from it and move on."

Wheaton Academy led 19-18 with 5:16 left in the second quarter after an Alexa Sharkey steal and score and a pair of Sydney Sharkey free throws. Kirsten Verdun gave Coal City (13-2) back the lead with a short jumper, and it was downhill from there.

Verdun, a 5-foot-11 junior forward, scored 11 of her game-high 23 points during the crushing stretch that turned the game in Coal City's favor.

"One thing we know," Coal City coach Brad Schmitt said, "is that Kirsten with her strength and athletic ability is going to be a tough matchup, inside or outside."

Verdun also pulled down 17 rebounds, part of a decisive 36-18 Coal City advantage on the boards.

"She kind of owned us in the first and second quarter - kind of a one-man show," Mitchell said. "They really owned the boards on us."

Wheaton Academy did harass Coal City into 29 turnovers, but the Coalers shot well when they handled the pressure.

"We knew they were going to pressure hard," Schmitt said. "If they did overplay, we were able to go backdoor and get some easy buckets."

While Coal City was finding the range, Wheaton Academy had trouble buying a basket. Alexa Sharkey finished with 18 points to go with 9 rebounds and 7 steals, but shot just 9 of 27 from the field. Several shots from in close spun out, a microcosm of the Warriors' struggles as a team.

"It seemed like there was a cover on the basket," Sharkey said. "I'd get to the basket and get the shot off, but it wouldn't go in."

Coal City led 51-31 with five minutes left, before a furious Warriors rally. Jenn Lee scored 12 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, and a Sydney Sharkey 3-pointer followed by an Alexa Sharkey steal and score made it 59-50 with a minute left. Alexa Sharkey got another steal on the inbounds, but lost the ball back to Coal City.

"We dug too big of a hole to get out of," Mitchell said, "but I will say we fought to the very end. This one game should not define our season. We have a lot more basketball to play."