Donati, St. Francis hold off Wheaton Academy

St. Francis coach Bob Ward walked by Nick Donati after Saturday night's 67-59 victory against rival Wheaton Academy, gently slapped the senior point guard on the chest and said, "Key, key."

Donati had 13 points, 4 steals and 3 assists as the Spartans jumped out to a double-digit first-quarter lead and never trailed in the game.

"We knew that when we had an early lead, that they'd come back," Ward said. "We knew they'd make an early run. They're just too good of a team. They've got good players and they would make a run.

"When you make a run, and you're kind of holding on when we were at 12 and 16 and then 7 you've got to have a point guard that isn't hesitant. And we win this game because we aggressively played offensively at the end of the game. He penetrated, he got fouled, he found guys. You sit back on your heels and you're too cautious, then they're attacking you. When they were making a run at us, we attacked them, which was great."

The Spartans scored the game's first 13 points, with Wheaton Academy getting off just one shot in that stretch because of seven turnovers. Once the Warriors (3-4, 0-1 Suburban Christian Blue) found their rhythm, however, they chipped away at the St. Francis lead, pulling within 4 midway through a second quarter that ended with the Spartans ahead 28-22.

"We just knew that we had to come out firing on all cylinders, put them down quick," Donati said. "That definitely got the crowd into it. The atmosphere here was crazy tonight. It kept us going all game."

"We weren't prepared for the atmosphere and started off slow," Wheaton Academy senior Wylie Kopp said.

St. Francis pulled ahead 48-30 early in the fourth quarter, but as it did in the first half, Wheaton Academy battled back, getting as close again as 7 as both teams repeatedly went to the free-throw line.

"We knew that we had to play great help defense because they had a lot of scorers," Donati said. "We had to just help and get back. We played tough all game, got subs, got fresh legs. It seemed to work out."

Ryan Coyle led all scorers with 20 points, adding 7 rebounds for St. Francis (4-1, 1-1). Junior Andrew Kimball added 12 points.

Collin Roy came off the bench to lead Wheaton Academy with 13 points, Lars Olson and Drew Sandberg added 12 points apiece, and Cameron Harvey tallied 10.