Westminster rebounds, shoots to victory against Harvest Christian
Westminster Christian boys basketball coach Bruce Firchau sees a lot of similarities in upstart Harvest Christian and his first season at Westminster.
In 2005, Firchau took over Warriors' team that went 0-26 the previous season, but had a lot of young talent.
This season's Lions team starts 3 sophomores and a junior, with Firchau leaving Friday's 53-36 nonconference victory over Harvest with a positive outlook for the new rival's future.
"This is the beginning of a rivalry that will be a lot of fun for the athletes at both schools," Firchau said. "I really like (sophomore John Vislisel) and (junior Stuart Wolf). They're nice players."
While the future of the rivalry between the two schools whose property lines are a stone's throw from each other on Elgin's west side may favor the Lions (4-7), the present was all about Westminster (5-4).
The Warriors owned the glass with a 42-18 rebounding advantage. Harvest Christian was also outrebounded 17-6 on the offensive glass, with the Warriors attempting 5 shots on one possession during the second quarter.
Westminster had 4 players finish with at least 7 rebounds, with Tim Rodgers and Josh Beachler each grabbing 4 offensive boards.
"I was really pleased with Tim Rodgers," Forchau said. "He's relentless. Josh Beachler played a good game outside and gave us some good weak side rebounding."
Harvest Christian played a 2-3 defensive zone, with allowed the Warriors to do a combination of two things.
Westminster attempted 19 three-pointers in the game, making 7, and crashed the boards to create second-chance points.
Will Woodhouse (14 points) connected 4 times from beyond the 3-point line and Beachler (16 points) hit 2.
"(Rebounding) was one of our keys," Beachler said. "Coach said we had to crash the boards. It helped us that they played zone (defense). The backside was open."
Harvest Christian was able to come back after a 15-3 deficit to open the second quarter.
John Vislisel scored 10 of his 11 points in a second quarter in which the Lions outscored Westminster 14-13. Guard Ulises Fragoso put in 8 of his team-high 14 points in the third quarter when the Lions cut the Warriors' lead to 30-21.
But the lack of rebounding still caught up with Harvest Christian as Westminster held a 16-6 advantage in the second half.
The Warriors grabbed 14 total rebounds, 8 offensive in the first quarter.
"(Rebounding) was our No. 1 key," Lions' coach Brian Clodi said. "We were in a 2-3 zone. We knew where their shooters were for the most part, but we didn't finish plays. There were a lot of times when they got three shots in one possession."