Schaumburg handles St. Charles East 52-36 for RJ Thanksgiving title

ST. CHARLES – No matter the sport, high school coaches have often said defense travels.

Schaumburg’s basketball team certainly followed that principle during Saturday night’s 52-36 victory over St. Charles East in what turned out to be the championship game of the 64th annual RJ Thanksgiving Tournament in St. Charles.

Led by Justin Hardy Tournament MVP Jordan Tunis, the Saxons held all four of their opponents below the 50-point mark on their way to a 4-0 record.

Tunis scored a game-high 18 points against the Saints (3-1), including nine second-quarter points, as the Saxons turned a 12-10 deficit into a 31-20 halftime lead by outscoring the home team 21-8 in the decisive second stanza.

“We knew they were going to come out fighting, but we knew if we stayed together and stayed strong, we were going to come out with a win,” said Tunis, who knocked down a pair of 3-pointers during his team’s 11-2 run to start the second quarter.

“Tunis is a fantastic player,” Saints coach Rob Klemm said of Schaumburg’s 5-foot-11 senior point guard. “He’s very difficult to guard, but overall, we did a good job on him — the best we could. He got those two 3s on out-of-bounds plays, and we couldn’t bounce back from it. I thought those were two real big possessions in the game.”

Trailing 40-24 early in the fourth quarter, the Saints pulled within 41-28 on Sam Tisch’s three-point play with 4:53 remaining, but Tunis found himself all alone at the top of the key and buried his third 3-pointer of the game to extend the lead to 44-28 and all but seal the decision.

“Jordan’s been virtually unstoppable these last four games,” said Saxons coach Jason Tucker. “He has been the best player on our team so far, but it’s a collective effort.

“We scored 21 points in that second quarter, and we got downhill a lot. That’s what we want to do — get downhill and take it to teams.”

Senior 6-8 center Zion Young finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, while Tony Horton added 11 points, five rebounds and four steals for the Saxons. Tunis, Young, and Cam Anderson earned all-tournament honors.

“We’re very excited about the group we have,” said Tucker, whose squad finished 16-15 a year ago. “We just beat a very good basketball team that is going to have a great season.

“We really think we underachieved last year. It’s great to start 4-0, but now we’re on to Glenbard East (on Tuesday).”

Andrew Wolfsmith led the Saints with nine points and five rebounds.

Led by all-tournament selections Brad Monkemeyer, Marco Klebosits and Wolfsmith, the Saints averaged 65 points per game before running into stingy Schaumburg.

“It’s good to be challenged,” said Klemm. “We’re a better team today than we were earlier in the week, and that’s what we’re working for throughout the season.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241130/boys-basketball/boys-basketball-tunis-leads-schaumburg-to-championship-of-st-charles-easts-thanksgiving-tournamen/