Warriors earn edge in PSL

As sweet as those first 16 wins were, this was the one Wheaton Academy hungered for the most.

The Warriors knocked off defending Private School League champion Walther Lutheran 51-43 on Tuesday in the Warrior Dome in a matchup of teams unbeaten in conference play coming in.

"We've never won a PSL championship, and last year we lost to them twice," said Wheaton Academy junior Alexa Sharkey, who had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 6 steals. "One of our goals is to not lose in the PSL, so this is a big game."

Wheaton Academy (17-1, 4-0) led from midway through the first quarter on, but a double-digit advantage dipped to 46-41 with 4:40 left. Leah Fortune followed with the Warriors' biggest basket of the game, a driving layup over Walther Lutheran center Emma Schmidt-Swartz to push the lead back to 7 with 3:11 left.

Fortune later had 2 steals in the game's last two minutes, thwarting a late Broncos rally. A microcosm of her hustle play came in the first minute of the fourth quarter, when she knocked the ball away in Walther Lutheran's backcourt, dove on the floor for the loose change and saved it to Kristine Egebrecht for a basket.

"Defensively, Leah is just really stifling," Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell said. "She reads and anticipates so well and comes up with big plays when you need her to the most."

"We really dug deep at the end of the game," Fortune said, "because it could have gone either way."

Wheaton Academy forced 29 Walther Lutheran turnovers in the game, 22 on steals. Fortune had 9 of the steals.

"The scouting report on Wheaton Academy is they have a good fullcourt press and they play tough defense," Broncos coach Todd Fisher said, "but we didn't think we'd turn the ball over as much as we did tonight."

Wheaton Academy came out of the gate quick, bolting to a 20-11 lead after a quarter as Sharkey scored 13 of her points in a fast-paced first eight minutes.

Walther Lutheran switched to a box-and-one defense to cover up Sharkey, but kid sister Sydney Sharkey knocked down three of her four 3-pointers in the second quarter to take the Warriors into the break up 33-25.

Jenn Lee added 8 points for Wheaton Academy. Schmidt-Swartz had 20 points, 15 rebounds and 6 blocks for Walther Lutheran (15-4, 3-1).

"They're a good basketball team. We were just able to hang on in the end," Mitchell said. "It's a great win."