Beard, Wildcats bounce back for win

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:48AM

Stefan Beard had 20 points and Bernard Brame added 13 points as No. 18 Thornton bounced back from its first loss of the season to beat visiting Lincoln-Way West 77-50 on Friday night.

The Wildcats had a commanding lead, 44-16, at the half and coach Troy Jackson went deep into his bench to finish the SouthWest Suburban Red game.

"We had to come out and play strong," Beard said. "We can't let up in this conference. We have to practice hard and play hard as a team. We have to sleep in the gym basically."

The Wildcats (14-1, 5-0) were coming off a 55-53 double-overtime loss to North Lawndale in the Bob Hambric Shootout at T.F. North on Sunday.

"We have a group of guys that play hard," Jackson said. "We stubbed our toe in the last game and didn't come out with the energy like we did tonight. The nucleus of the team is very good. We have good players at every position and everyone can score,"

The Wildcats have depth in its numbers. One of the keys to the team's success is the bench,

"We play as a team," said Beard. "There are no individuals. If someone is hot we feed him the ball like tonight, and I got 20."

Another big factor in the Wildcats' success is its historic field house. It's an intimidating venue, particularly for a fledgling program like Lincoln-Way West. The Warriors are in their second year of varsity play.

"It's a tough place to play," said Warriors Coach Eric Long. "Another reason it's tough is because Thornton has a good team. Our kids never gave up. We are trying to build a foundation here. This was a great opportunity to play a great basketball team and learn how to compete at that level. We talked at halftime about winning the second half. We have to figure out how to do that in the first half."

Robert Hubbard had 20 points and Gino Manzella had 10 for the Warriors (3-16, 0-4).

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