Call it the senior game, even if it wasn’t exactly old school.
Waubonsie Valley’s Andrew Schweitzer borrowed a page Wednesday from his NBA coaching brethren, with Tyler Threat and his classmates making it work for the third-year coach.
“It was nice to get some guys some rest,” Schweitzer said of giving junior starters Tyreek Coleman and Moses Wilson the night off against visiting Naperville North to take care of some bumps and bruises while playing only his seven seniors in the final game of the regular season.
“To see these seniors finish their home career like that was awesome. What does the NBA call it, load management? We’ll call it that.”
It was a 43-38 victory for the Warriors that capped an eight-day stretch Threat won’t soon forget.
The 6-foot Threat started and scored nine points. It felt like old times as he shared point guard duties. A week ago, he signed a national letter of intent to play Division I football at Valparaiso.
“This is my first start since my sophomore year,” Threat said. “I’ve been coming off the bench this year and last. It was good to get a start for our last home game. It was cool to be out there.”
Usual starting guard Treshawn Blissett led the Warriors (25-2, 9-1) with 16 points as they wrapped up the DuPage Valley Conference championship, the program’s first title since 2003.
Little-used reserve guards Wes Peavler and Andy Wilen joined key reserve guard Elijah Whitaker in the starting lineup. They contributed eight, three and two points, respectively.
Waubonsie then held on in a fourth quarter that featured eight points from Blissett in a slower-paced game than usual.
“I got in late minutes in the fourth quarter in a couple of games,” said Peavler, a transfer this school year from Naperville North. “I look forward to practices. We compete every day.
“All the guys hustle getting work in. It’s been so much fun, obviously with the (23-game) winning streak. We have a great atmosphere, and it’s been fun to compete and go at it.”
Threat and Peavler sealed the win over the Huskies (13-16, 3-7) by sinking two free throws apiece in the final minute.
“He’s a talented kid,” Schweitzer said of Peavler. “He’s bought in. I thought he was composed and hit a couple big shots.”
Threat had the play of the game, inbounding the ball under his own basket to himself, bouncing it off a defender’s back, grabbing the ball back and scoring from the baseline to get an assist and basket on the same play.
“I’ve seen it done a few times,” Threat said. “They weren’t facing me, and I was thinking about it as soon as I got the ball. Got a bucket.”
Threat had a different role on the football field, piling up more than 1,000 all-purpose yards at running back, wide receiver and kick returner. He also started at cornerback for part of the season.
He will focus on wide receiver in college.
“Valpo recruited me the hardest, and it felt like home and family on the visit,” Threat said. “Plus, it’s only 90 minutes away, so it’s close to home.”
Coleman’s emergence and an injury his junior season reduced Threat’s basketball role to that of key reserve.
“Tyreek is Tyreek,” Schweitzer said. “It’s tough to take him off the court.
“Every game has been different. We’ve had games where we only played five or six guys for an entire half, so it’s nice to see these guys perform that way (Wednesday), get some confidence. We’ve got some depth going into the playoffs.”
The postseason begins in a week, with a Feb. 21 date against Plainfield Central in the Class 4A Metea Valley Regional.
“We’ve done historical things at this school that’s been here since 1975,” Schweitzer said. “We still want more, but there’s things we can be proud of right now.”
