Wheaton Academy’s 3s sink Aurora Christian
Wheaton Academy junior Collin Roy never saw his career night coming.
It certainly didn’t seem likely based on the Warriors’ first game with Aurora Christian when they grinded out a 45-40 win.
And he didn’t see the odds improving with his shot not falling much in warm-ups Saturday night in Aurora.
But once the game got going, so did Roy. He poured in a career-high 26 points fueled by six 3-pointers in a 71-57 win at Aurora Christian (13-5, 3-3 Suburban Christian Blue).
“I wasn’t making many shots in warm-ups,” Roy said. “I don’t know what happened. I just started feeling it and kept shooting. We all made a bunch of shots and all contributed a lot to the win.”
Indeed Wheaton Academy (11-8, 5-1) did, especially the trio of Roy, Lars Olson (18 points, 7 rebounds) and Cameron Harvey (20 points, 6 rebounds) who combined for 64 of the team’s 71 points.
Those three also canned 12 three-pointers. Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson made an adjustment against the Eagles’ 1-2-2 zone by adding a baseline runner.
“It really helped us,” Ferguson said. “The other key thing was our scout team did a great job helping prepare us for this game.”
Aurora Christian kept up with the Warriors early, trading the lead four times in the opening quarter and ending with a 13-12 lead.
Olson opened the second quarter with a 3 and the Warriors never trailed again. While Steve Hanson and Haydn McNelis buried 3s late in the quarter for the Eagles, they couldn’t match the Warriors’ barrage of 3s that included four in a row to open a 38-28 halftime lead.
“We executed our game plan really well and shot the ball very well,” Ferguson said. “Our thought is you have to play great team basketball to get an open shot. It was three or four great passes that got that open shot.”
After Olson had the hottest hand in the first half with 14 points, Roy got going in the second half with 16 points.
The Warriors led by double digits nearly the entire second half. Up 54-39 going to the fourth quarter, Wheaton Academy took its biggest lead at 66-46 on a pair of Roy free throws.
“My teammates were just getting me open,” Roy said. “A lot of penetration and shooting. We were all feeling it.”
That penetration was the biggest disappointment to Eagles coach Steve Hanson. Cory Windle came off the bench to score 15 points and tie CJ Schutt for the team lead, but even making even 8 of their own 3-pointers was no match for Wheaton Academy shooting 13 of 26. Roy hit 6 of 10, Olson 4 of 9.
The Warriors also matched their season-high with 71 points, which they reached against Aurora Central. They also took a half game lead over St. Francis (4-1) for the lead in the SCC Blue race.
“They shot really well,” Hanson said. “A combination of our defense and they were locked in. They played better defense than we did tonight and we paid for it. I thought we got off to a decent start but as soon as we allowed them to dribble and penetrate they picked us apart. We couldn’t stop the bleeding.”