Chargers move to 3-0 after pair of wins at Black Hawk Classic

MOLINE — The Sandburg men's basketball team maintained its perfect start to the season with wins at the Black Hawk Classic on Friday and Saturday. The Chargers opened with a 66-63 victory over Lake County, then beat Oakton 61-47 on Saturday afternoon.

FRIDAY
Sandburg 66, Lake County 63
Trailing 63-61 after a Lancers 3-pointer with 1:30 to go, Gavin Grothaus splashed in the go-ahead trey with 1:05 to play.

Grothaus' triple came from the left wing off a pass from Ralph Wires, who had a career-high 22 points and handed out six assists. Wires, a sophomore point guard from Quincy, was 9 of 13 from the field and connected on 2 of his 3 3-point tries. Wires' previous best was 20 points in last season's Region 4 quarterfinals at Madison.

Freshman Ashton Grieves scored 14 for the Chargers on 5-of-11 shooting. The Metamora High School product also tied Keauntrey Barnes for the team lead with six rebounds and added two assists.

Freshman Rylan Carton knocked down a pair of foul shots in the final seconds to seal the victory and finished with 11 points.

Sandburg shot 52 percent (25 of 48) from the field and was 7 of 18 from long distance.

SATURDAY
Sandburg 61, Oakton 47
Sandburg (3-0) stymied the Owls, holding Oakton to just 22 points in the first half and 35 percent (17 of 48) from the floor for the game.

Carton, a graduate of Sherrard High School, had a team-best 19 points in the victory. The freshman forward was 8 of 13 shooting, hit 2 of 4 from beyond the arc and had three assists.

Barnes nearly had a double-double, posting 13 points and nine rebounds. The sophomore from Farmington was 6 of 10 from the floor and matched Grothaus for the team lead on the glass.

Wires also had 13 points in the victory. He made 5 of 6 foul shots and dished out a team-best four assists for the Chargers, who led 33-22 at the break.

UP NEXT
7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Spoon River

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