St. Francis boys basketball wallops Wheaton Academy

WHEATON – St. Francis boys basketball coach Bob Ward let his team have it during an early timeout Tuesday.

The rant was nothing the Spartans hadn’t heard many times before from their defensive-minded coach, although it was delivered even more emphatically than usual.

“The point was defense,” St. Francis junior Gabriel Johnson said. “It’s always defense, seriously. He’s always on us getting up the [help] line, D’ing up our man, high close-outs, everything. I thought we did that really well and changed the game, really, defensively.”

After a lukewarm start, St. Francis took control for a 61-41 win against local rival Wheaton Academy. The Spartans used a 15-0 run during the third quarter to bust the game open.

“Other than them just daggering us to start the game, I thought we really came back and had really, really good defensive possessions,” Ward said. “And offensively, we kind of took care of the ball. At this point of the year, we’re not real pretty offensively, but I do think we’re ahead defensively, and I thought our offense was efficient.”

With usual sharpshooter Jason Sullivan struggling early, St. Francis (3-3) came to life behind Johnson, a 6-foot-3 guard who canned his first six shots from the floor and scored a career-high 24 points.

Johnson, sporting a purplish shiner under his right eye from a wayward elbow last week against Hampshire, is the younger brother of former Wheaton Academy standout Lucas Johnson, giving the matchup extra sizzle.

“Yeah, of course,” Johnson said. “I get to go home, give my brother a little nudge, like we beat them. … It was a good game for us. I’m glad we won.”

Ward said Johnson’s progress is striking considering his relative lack of basketball experience.

“He’s a kid that, actually, when he was a young kid where everyone’s playing basketball, hundreds of games, he was a wrestler, believe it or not, and a very good one,” Ward said. “So this is really kind of like his third year of really playing, so he’s got a nice feel for the game, and he plays hard.”

Wheaton Academy (1-6) led 9-2 after a trio of early 3-pointers, two from guard Bryce Sandberg and one from forward Anthony Polinski.

But St. Francis surged within a point by the end of the quarter and led, 29-20, at halftime.

“It was probably a little bit of fool’s gold early,” Wheaton Academy coach Pete Froedden said. “A couple of quick 3s went in, and sometimes that’s the worst thing that can happen. You’re flying on a high that’s not real sometimes.”

Polinski (team-high 10 points) added five quick points to open the second half and bring Wheaton Academy within 29-25, but that’s when the Spartans roared to a 15-0 run that only was interrupted by free throws resulting from a technical foul.

The Warriors, retooling after losing three likely starters to transfers, are going to require time to build a winning identity, Froedden said.

“We’re still learning who we are as a team and learning what we need to do to compete in a rivalry game and that kind of stuff,” Froedden said.

Sullivan shook off his slow start to score 12 points, and Mike Shaw added 10 points and six rebounds for the Spartans.