Wheaton Academy defeats Aurora Central Catholic
Hitting Aurora Central Catholic with a 16-5 run out of halftime, Wheaton Academy proved coach Paul Ferguson’s point.
The Warriors are a second-half team.
Wheaton Academy (5-0, 1-0) extended a 1-point halftime lead to beat the Chargers 63-54 in both teams’ Suburban Christian Conference Gold Division opener.
“We regrouped in the locker room at halftime and figured out what we needed to do. We came out, guys played great in the second half, a lot of energy,” said Ferguson, whose defending SCC Gold champions held a 23-22 halftime lead over Aurora Central (1-4, 0-1).
“Luke (Johnson) did a nice job, especially in the second half. He was a real man in the middle for us, scored a couple big buckets, passed out some really nice passes. We ran a lot of our offense through him in the second half.”
Johnson finished with 8 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 7 blocks. He displayed the latter two facets quickly in the second half, setting up a Tate Fritz three-point play, then after Wheaton Academy’s Wes Koral knocked down a 3, rejecting an ACC shot.
“A lot of people tell me, try and score more in the post,” the 6-foot-9 Johnson said, “but I think to be a good team you’ve got to have five guys with 10 points each instead of one guy with 25.”
With Fritz, Koral and Johnson all active, Wheaton Academy led 47-39 after three quarters, outmanning ACC’s Ryan Harreld, who swished three of his four 3-pointers in the quarter. He finished with 14 points.
Koral’s 16 points led Wheaton Academy ahead of Fritz’s 15 and 13 by Larry Reynolds, whose windmill dunk from Johnson’s no-look pass had Wheaton Academy up 61-46 with 2:49 left to play in the game.
“I feel like we’ve got three guys that are playing at a high level and then we’ve got a bunch of guys that aren’t at that level right now,” said Chargers coach Nathan Drye. “And until the rest of the guys fill in around those three guys that are carrying us we’re not going to be very good.”
One of them, junior forward Robert DeMyers, made 2 free throws with 1:05 left to play. Teamed with Paul Kaminski’s prior pair of 3s, ACC pulled within 63-54, but that was it.
“They came out a little stronger than I thought they were, in the second half,” said DeMyers, who scored a game-high 19 points.