Crane ousts Wheaton Academy

Wheaton Academy made sure Crane's best player didn't beat the Warriors on Tuesday night at the Class 3A Riverside-Brookfield sectional semifinals.

But the Warriors had no answer for the next best Cougar.

Crane junior Willie Conner broke out of a shooting slump to drop five 3-pointers and 32 points in the top-seeded Cougars' 68-53 victory over No. 4 Wheaton Academy.

"Coming into the game we were very concerned with No. 1, Kieran Woods," Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson said about Crane's Division I-prospect senior guard. "He's had a great season. We controlled him pretty well. The second guy we were concerned about was Conner, and he stepped up. He made some great plays, he knocked down some big shots and I thought he was the key guy for them."

Woods finished with 12 points, 7 in the fourth quarter. Conner found his range in the second quarter, and he wasn't about to be stopped.

"You've got to pick your poison a little bit, and he hurt us," Ferguson said.

"Anytime a team plays a zone a shooter will get open opportunities," Crane coach Timothy Anderson said. "We've been unfortunate lately. He's been having some bad shooting games."

Crane (24-3) was very fortunate Tuesday, starting in the second quarter, when Conner scored 12 points to help the Cougars overcome a 14-9 first-quarter deficit and take a 26-23 lead at halftime.

"I thought we played a really, really good first half and we missed too many free throws," said Ferguson, whose team was 5 of 10 at the free-throw line in the first half. "In fact I'd say I thought we played an outstanding first half and we missed too many free throws."

The Warriors (27-2) still trailed by just 3 points midway through the third period when Conner took over again. He hit two straight 3-pointers and a 2 to send the lead to double digits. Crane led 43-33 after three periods.

"That's tough when you have your second scorer scoring 32 points," Warriors senior Tate Fritz said.

Again missed shots haunted Wheaton Academy, this time from in close.

"We came out of the locker room at halftime and felt really good about our chances, and for the most part I liked our offense in the second half, except we just missed too many layups," Ferguson said. "Some of them were contested layups; Crane is very athletic so it wasn't like they were gimmes, but I thought we had a lot of good looks that we wanted and they just didn't go down."

Crane got busy at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter making 17 of 21 to repel Wheaton Academy's early fourth-quarter comeback bid.

"They played better," Fritz said. "They wanted it just a little bit more than us, a little bit more intensity, a little bit more passion."

Senior center Luke Johnson led Wheaton Academy with 24 points and 6 rebounds.