Wheaton Academy overpowers Glenbard West for crown

In its first year at the Glenbard West Holiday Classic, Wheaton Academy's boys basketball team made itself right at home.

Breezing through a four-game stretch in five days, the Warriors cruised to the tournament championship with Wednesday's 59-46 victory over Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn.

Not only did Wheaton Academy (13-0) stay unbeaten, it did so in dominant fashion. The Warriors won the four games by an average of 24 points behind the all-tournament performances of 6-foot-9 Tim Rusthoven and Luke Johnson.

In their win over the host Hilltoppers (2-10) - who gave the Warriors their toughest game - Quinn Gorski set the tone by hitting three of his four 3-pointers and scoring 11 of his 20 points in the first quarter.

With Glenbard West focusing so much interior attention on Rusthoven, Gorski loosened things up from the arc. Forced to pay more attention to the perimeter, Rusthoven wound up with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocked shots.

"Glenbard West is a good team and they matched up with us pretty well, so it was good to get a win against them," said Rusthoven, who's committed to William & Mary. "We're really encouraged right now. We got tested here and came out and did real well."

Glenbard West stayed with Wheaton Academy through much of the first half, but Wheaton Academy's 10-2 run - featuring 3-pointers by Gorski and Tate Fritz - to close the second quarter put the Warriors ahead 36-21 at the break. They stayed ahead by double digits the entire second half.

"We were kind of picking our poison and packing it in on Rusthoven a little bit," said Glenbard West coach Tim Hoder. "We had to give up something, so they took advantage on the outside."

Sophomore Michael Mache scored 14 points to pace Glenbard West. Tyler Warden, who put in a valiant effort defending Rusthoven, added 12 points.

The Hilltoppers narrowed the gap to 11 points early in the third quarter, but the Warriors closed the quarter with a 10-2 burst.

"I thought our guys played really hard tonight," said Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson. "This was a great matchup, and we came out with a lot of intensity. We had a bunch of guys step up."