Boys basketball: Nolan Lukach makes presence felt off the bench, powers Streator past Yorkville Christian

PLANO – Nolan Lukach is going to make a difference regardless whether he starts or comes in as a reserve for Streator.

During the first game of the 60th annual Plano Christmas Classic on Wednesday morning, the Streator junior came off the bench and was a dominant presence inside to help the Bulldogs outlast Yorkville Christian 68-51.

“We had to take advantage of our size inside and our post play,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “The kids did a great job of looking for Nolan, and he did a great job of demanding the ball and getting to his spots and finishing.”

Lukach, who averaged seven points a game at last year’s tournament to help the Bulldogs take 11th place, scored 14 against the Mustangs while also snagging five rebounds.

“We knew we had an advantage going in so we wanted to play through the paint, play with two feet on the ground and play the boards,” Lukach said. “We needed to dominate the glass which is what we said in yesterday’s practice.”

On the subject of rebounding, Streator (10-3) devoured the Mustangs (5-10), collecting easily more than twice as many as the Mustangs 38-15.

“We have a lot of confidence when both of our bigs get the ball down low, and Nolan just had it going today,” Doty said. “He started a lot of games for us, pretty much the whole season as a sophomore last year. He’s accepted a role this year of coming off the bench. We’ve got a very deep team, and he hasn’t wavered. I love what he brings when he gets in the game with his energy and ability to crash the offensive glass and finish inside.”

When the Bulldogs weren’t feeding the ball inside to Lukach and Logan Auckland, who scored 10 points, they often were taking it to the basket themselves with senior Christian Benning leading the charge. Benning powered Streator with game highs of 28 points and 10 rebounds.

“Christian was able to really assert his authority on the game,” Doty said. “But [Yorkville Christian] did a good job of pressuring. We were able to keep that 10 to 12-point and more lead for the majority of the game, but they had the firepower to get back in the game so we talked about that at halftime.”

Yorkville Christian has no seniors, but Tray Alford, Kayden Maxwell, Jordan Purvis and Graham Razum all made their tournament debuts as freshmen, collecting 10 points between them. Streator played seven seniors that combined for 42 points.

“We knew their physicality would be an issue and they have four or five seniors in their rotation while we’re young and small,” Mustangs coach Aaron Sovern said. “Our biggest disappointment was hidden points, which are points in the last minuter of the quarter. You can only fight back so many times.”

The Bulldogs led 38-23 at halftime, enjoying the same 15-point advantage they had when they jumped ahead 17-2 at the start with Benning already reaching double digits despite being only at the midpoint of the first quarter.

Sophomore Jayden Riley carried the Mustangs offensively with 18 points. He also had seven of the team’s 15 rebounds.

“Riley is such a tough cover,” Doty said. “He’s a load already as a sophomore. He does a great job of using his body and finding ways with his stop and go and hesitation.”

Zach Marini drilled a few 3-pointers for the Mustangs and finished with 13 points, while Brady Sovern contributed eight points.

The Mustangs will be right back at it at 10:30 a.m. Thursday against Newark while No. 5 seed Streator takes on No. 4 seed Northridge Prep at 3:30 p.m.

“There are a lot of good teams, but if we play at our best we can play with anybody here,” Lukach said. “There’s a lot of good competition, so we’ve got to see what the next day brings. We’ve got to get to the next game to worry about it.”