WHEATON – For three quarters Friday at the Spyglass Athletic Center, aggressive, physical defense gave the St. Francis boys basketball team a lead in a big game against Suburban Christian Conference rival Wheaton Academy.

But in the fourth quarter, that defensive effort nearly backfired on the Spartans as the Warriors almost came back from a 16-point deficit before falling one point short, 64-63.

“When you have a lead, you want the clock running,” St. Francis coach Bob Ward said. “You don’t want to be fouling them. You want them fouling you, and we were fouling them.”