Boys Basketball: Tyler Fawcett, hot-shooting Wheaton Warrenville South roll past Bartlett

WHEATON – Did somebody get the license plate on that offense?

The Wheaton Warrenville South boys basketball team’s offense had all the subtlety of a Mack Truck, putting a vice-like grip on Friday’s Class 4A regional final game at home, cruising to a 64-43 win over Bartlett.

Next for the 31-2 Tigers is a Wednesday Bartlett Sectional semifinal against Benet. WW South beat the Redwings 45-38 in January.

“They’ve played their rear ends off all season. The players are so unselfish. They don’t care who scores. They’re just happy to win,” said WW South coach Mike Healy.

The Tigers led 18-16 after the first quarter but outscored the Hawks 21-7 in the second period to lead 39-23 at halftime. The team finished the first half shooting 17 of 24 from the field and completely controlled the paint while keeping the game at a very brisk pace.

“We try to be like that every night. Most of the time we are on a quick pace and try to stay on top,” said Tyler Fawcett, who led WW South with 17 points.

Fawcett scored six points during his team’s 10-2 run in the second quarter, which gave the Tigers a double-digit lead they never gave back.

A basket by Matt Sommerdyke put WW South up by 21 for the second time in the third quarter. Sommerdyke finished with 12 points.

Bartlett (24-7) did whittle the WW South lead to 17 points courtesy of a bucket by Kelton McEwen. The Tigers, though, led 51-30 at the end of three quarters.

“I thought our offense was pretty good. When (the Hawks) went zone, we seemed to do the right thing. When they went to man-to-man, we seemed to make the right decisions,” Healy said.

Braylen Meredith was WW South’s third player scoring in double digits with 15.

“We’re 31-2. We’ve beaten four or five teams in the top 25. We’ve put in a lot of work. A lot of people doubted us in conference and we went undefeated. We have a regional title and will face Benet or Glenbard North,” Meredith said after taking his turn with his teammates in cutting down a net.

Bartlett was led by 7-foot-3-inch Conrad Luczynski, who scored a game-high 22 points and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

“I think a factor in our success this season was we didn’t give up. We hustled and the team was dedicated on and off the court,” Luczynski said.

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