Wheaton Academy shakes off the rust

Alexa Sharkey thought she and her Wheaton Academy teammates came out a little rusty in Saturday's opening round game of the Lisle Holiday Cage Classic against Reed-Custer because they hadn't played all week.

"It wasn't our best game," Sharkey said. "We started out a little slow, and we weren't that intense on defense."

That being said, the "rusty" Warriors (10-1) employed a full-court press that forced 11 first-quarter turnovers as they built a 24-6 lead on the way to a 66-41 victory over the Comets.

Sharkey, who finished with a game-high 25 points, scored 13 points in the opening period and came up with 4 of her 8 steals playing the defensive point on the press that completely overwhelmed the Comets.

"Lexi had a great game," said Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell. "She does such a terrific job of turning defense into offense."

"I just stay back enough so the ballhandler thinks she can pass the ball," Sharkey said. "But then I know I can get in to steal it when the ball is passed."

Sophomore point guard Sydney Sharkey, Alexa's sister, scored 15 points on the night, including four 3-pointers.

"Sydney is a little floor general," Mitchell said. "She runs the offense and she has a great stroke from the outside. She can drain the 3 from just about anywhere. And I love her intensity."

The Warriors built a 44-22 halftime lead, but the Comets fought gamely after being overrun in the first quarter and battling on the boards. They continued to run a patient offense, working for good shots.

But every time the Comets made a mini-run the Warriors were there to answer with a couple of steals that they converted for easy layups.

"It's tough to maintain your intensity when you get a big lead," Mitchell said. "But it was good because a lot of people got to play a lot of minutes. It was a good win for us, even though we could have done a little better job on our zone offense. We have to get better and work a little hard on attacking the zone."

Jacklyn Strouse came up big for Reed-Custer, putting up a double-double with 22 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

"Wheaton Academy is a great team," said Reed-Custer coach Matt Peterson. "They're the best team we've seen all year. Their press is pretty brutal, and they're huge. But we hustled and got better as the game went on. We made some stupid mistakes early, but we didn't give up. Jacklyn Strouse was obviously a highlight for us."