St. Francis takes raucous win over Wheaton Academy
When the 3-point contest has both student sections delirious, the game to follow will be a doozy.
"It was like a time warp, it was like 50 years ago," St. Francis coach Bob Ward said of the excitement leading up to Tuesday's Class 3A Wheaton Academy regional semifinal against the host Warriors. "The tickets went in about 20 minutes and there was a buzz the entire night."
In a jam-packed Warrior Dome, No. 8 seed St. Francis defeated No. 9 Wheaton Academy in a game decided by defense and at the foul line. St. Francis shot only 34 percent from the floor but held its Suburban Christian Conference rival to 25 percent shooting and made 25 of 34 free throws to win 52-44.
"Defensive intensity, right from the get-go," said Spartans forward Ryan Coyle, who scored a game-high 23 points, including 11 of 14 from the foul line, and snared 15 rebounds. He'll try to duplicate those numbers Friday against No. 1 seed Orr (21-4), which beat Clark 75-56.
"We got up in their face and we kept the intensity for all four quarters, and that made the game for us," Coyle said.
Leading start to finish with the nearest fourth-quarter margin 39-35 with 4:07 to play on a 3 by Wheaton Academy's Cameron Harvey, St. Francis (18-7) got off the bus playing man-to-man defense. With football-tough Nick Donati on Harvey, who managed a team-high 18 points, the Spartans forced 1-of-11 shooting in a first quarter they led 10-3.
"Either me or Ryan were going to guard him," said Donati, who added 10 points, "and when Coach told me I was ready for the challenge."
"We didn't shoot the ball very well, and some of that's due to what they did to us defensively," said Warriors coach Paul Ferguson.
Wheaton Academy (17-10) trailed 21-12 at halftime but made its inevitable charge behind 3-stroking Lars Olson in the third quarter and Collin Roy in the fourth; the former scored 15 points, the latter 9.
But after Harvey's big 3 midway through the fourth quarter, Zach Roswold countered with a putback, and the 6-foot-7 Roswold and the 6-6 Coyle combined for 8 of 12 free throws in the final 3:26 to send the Spartans faithful swarming onto center court in celebration.
Thus ended the prep careers of the Eastern Illinois-bound Harvey and Warriors mainstays like Olson and Drew Sandberg.
"Coyle, he's a tough matchup," Olson said. "He's a great player, you have to give him credit. And Coach Ward, great game plan for those guys. And they executed, so you've got to hand it to them."