Sabres capture first victory of season

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WEST CHICAGO -- Streamwood captured its first victory of the young season on Wednesday night by beating Walther Lutheran 61-52 at the Wheaton Academy Tournament.

The Sabres (1-2) followed a sloppy third quarter that saw Walther Lutheran (0-2) erase an eight-point halftime deficit to tie the game at 40 with a strong fourth in which they shot 8 of 12 from the field and scored 21 points.

Streamwood put the game away with 1:11 left when Marcus Lewis finished off a fast break with a dish inside to Tem Esikiel for an easy layup to put Streamwood up 57-48. Esikiel scored seven of his 19 points in the fourth and also finished with six rebounds and three assists on the night.

The Sabres held their biggest lead of the night with 2:40 to go in the second quarter when Brian Domokos pushed Streamwood's advantage to 27-15 with a free throw, but struggled mightily as the game headed into the second half.

The Broncos' Brandon Smith finished off a 15-1 run with a three-point play to put Walther Lutheran up 36-32 with 4:18 to go in the third. Streamwood's first field goal of the second half didn't come until there was 2:33 left in the third on a Domokos putback. The Sabres shot just 2-for-13 in the quarter, while the Broncos went 8-for-12.

"I'm happy, but I'll be honest with you," Streamwood coach Tim Jones said, "we played so well the first quarter to the half that we should have had a lock on the game. And we let them back in the game by not playing very hard."

While the Sabres picked up the pieces in the fourth, the Broncos fell apart -- shooting just 6-for-20 in the final eight minutes, including an 0-for-7 performance from behind the arc. The land of 3 was unkind to Walther all night as the Broncos missed all 17 of their 3-point attempts as the Sabres latched onto a zone defense for most of the evening.

After two consecutive losses by a total of just nine points, a win was a welcome sight for Jones and the Sabres, but improvement still needs to be made.

"In order to be a quality program you've got to be able to adjust and you've got to play the full four quarters," Jones said. "I know it's a win and I'm happy for the kids, but (too often) we're not running our offense all the way, we're taking the first shot available, that kind of stuff."

Domokos finished with 16 points and grabbed eight boards. Lewis (7 rebounds, 4 assists), Marcus Greene (7 rebounds) and Brian Brauer (3 assists) all finished with six points for the Sabres.

Smith led the Broncos with 23 points.