Arlington Heights, IL—St. Viator jumped off to an abrupt domineering lead early in the first half of Friday night's game against the Warriors on their way to a 70-51 victory, marking the first loss for the Wheaton Academy squad this year. Plagued by turnovers (13 in the first half), WA managed to score only 5 first quarter points against the Lions, who tallied up 21. The Warrior's offensive game began to show slight signs of life in the second quarter, thanks to some on-the-run jump shots from senior
Jake Cousins, but it wasn't enough to erase St. Viator's dominant first eight minutes. A three point basket at the buzzer heading into halftime by
Brandon Ruggles cut St. Viator's lead to 15, leading 40-24 at the half.
In the third quarter, Wheaton Academy returned to the hardwood with renewed vigor and a tenacity that could not go unnoticed from any seat in the gym. WA forced turnover after turnover against the host team, then converted on the offensive end.
Jake Cousins stepped up big again in the third quarter, knocking down two three-pointers and a two pointer, while
Gordon Behr's post presence, and
Brandon Ruggles' clean up buckets accelerated a 17-6 third quarter Warrior run. At one point, in a game which seemed to be in the books for St. Viator early on, Wheaton Academy brought the score to within just 3 points, but failure to convert and then multiple three pointers surrendered to the Lions widened the gap.
St. Viator broke the game open in the dwindling minutes, outscoring WA 24-10 in the final quarter.
The Warriors shot a season worst 9-of-15 from the free throw line tonight (60%), and shot just 37% from the field as a team, including a season-high amount of turnovers.
Arogundade Ore led all scores for the Lions with 26 points.
Jake Cousins led the Warriors with 15 points, while
Brandon Ruggles and
Gordon Behr each added 9. Friday night's loss moves the team to 4-1 on the season.
Wheaton Academy returns to action Saturday night in their first SCC conference matchup at home against Chicago Christian in the Warrior Dome with a tip-off time of 7:30 PM. The varsity girls will play before the boys at 6:00 PM. Both games will be audio streamed at
http://athletics.wheatonacademy.org/live beginning at 6:00 PM.
