Wheaton Academy boys basketball wipe slate clean in win over St. Francis

WHEATON – Painful as last season’s regionals loss to St. Francis was, the Wheaton Academy boys basketball team did not consider Friday’s meeting with the Spartans a chance to deliver payback.

“A new season, a new team,” Wheaton Academy post standout Luke Johnson said.

Just like last year, though, the Warriors are stacking victories at a staggering clip. They added another against the Spartans, pulling away in the fourth quarter for a 54-40 victory.

Johnson, the Warriors’ 6-foot-9 senior center, bedeviled St. Francis from the get-go, scoring 24 points on 9-of-11 shooting from the floor while smoothly finishing with either hand around the basket.

“I felt more on than usual,” said Johnson, who also rejected four Spartans shots. “The past few games I’ve been struggling a little bit shooting-wise, so I figured tonight just come out and play hard, and whatever goes in, goes in.”

Almost everything did. No amount of touches in the paint for Johnson would have been too many as far as Wheaton Academy coach Paul Ferguson was concerned.

“Every time he touched the ball, good things happened tonight,” Ferguson said.

Wheaton Academy (16-1) led, 28-25, after a low-scoring third quarter for both teams, but a pair of three-pointers early in the fourth quarter from junior guard Lars Olson afforded the visitors some breathing room.

St. Francis fleetingly fought back on a three-pointer by senior Michael Scholl (16 points), but the Warriors’ 1-2 punch of Johnson and guard Wes Koral supplied back-to-back baskets to give Wheaton Academy its first double-digit lead at 38-28.

A mini-rash of turnovers from there ensured the Spartans (8-9) would not be able to replicate last year’s postseason stunner that hastily sent the Warriors packing after a 24-2 regular season.

Wheaton Academy’s zone defense had St. Francis’ offense looking sickly for much of the second half.

“They’re just long,” Spartans coach Shawn Healy said. “Between Johnson, (Luke) Thorson, (Tate) Fritz, Koral, Olson and then (Drew) Sandberg, you’ve got length and you’ve got three guys between Koral, Sandberg and Olson who have extremely quick hands. A couple times we got casual with the basketball, they reached in, and maybe they didn’t get a steal, but enough to frustrate you.”

St. Francis continued to play without its top threat, junior Ryan Coyle, who is nearing his return from mono. Healy didn’t want to use Coyle’s absence as a rationale for the loss.

“I think with what we had out there, we had the opportunity to beat them,” Healy said. “We didn’t. They beat us. You’ve got to give them credit.”

Olson scored nine points, all on three-pointers, and Fritz had six points and 10 rebounds for Wheaton Academy.

The game counted as a non-conference matchup, rather than a Suburban Christian Conference crossover. The result sealed two straight years Wheaton Academy has swept local foes St. Francis, Wheaton North and Wheaton Warrenville South in the regular season.

“It’s an honor for us to be able to win those games,” Ferguson said.