Boys basketball: Jory Boley’s career-high 27 points power red-hot Yorkville past Lyons into Tosh quarterfinals

ELMHURST – Injuries played a role in Yorkville not getting off to the start it envisioned.

But now that the Foxes are back healthy, they are starting to play up to their full potential.

Behind a career-high 27 points from Jory Boley, Yorkville won its fifth game in a row with a 64-55 come-from-behind victory over Lyons in the second round of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic in Elmhurst.

The Foxes (8-5) advance to play Palatine in the 6:30 p.m. Thursday quarterfinal.

”We’ve been trying to get back on a win streak,” Boley said, “and get back on the map. I had a couple of shots fall early; my shot felt really good. I was also able to get to the basket and that helped out a lot. And my teammates were finding me for open shots. Offensively we don’t want to make just one pass and shoot. We want to get our offense flowing so we get good looks.”

Boley and Jason Jakstys combined for every Foxes’ point in the first half, with Boley’s jumper at the second quarter buzzer bringing them within 30-25.

Yorkville then seized control in the third quarter, outscoring the Lions 17-6 over those eight minutes, capped off by Boley’s 3-pointer at the horn.

Illinois commit Jakstys scored 15 of his 23 points in the first half and finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots.

”We are definitely back on track with our team chemistry,” Jakstys said. “We have a lot of momentum behind us, this was a big win for us.

“We made adjustments on the defensive side. Our offense was fine (in the first half). It was our defense that won us that game.”

Dayvion Johnson and Mike Dunn each hit trifectas to kick off the fourth quarter as Yorkville’s lead reached as many as 10 points. Johnson finished with eight assists.

”The last five games we’ve won, we are healthy with everyone back,” said Yorkville coach John Holakovsky, whose team finished 26-6 a year ago. “We are starting to get our groove back. We had a really good summer but got hurt early on with some random things.

”I think defensive rebounding was the big thing (in this game). We got out-rebounded bad in that first half. That hurt us, we weren’t able to push the ball in transition. Once we got some stops and rebounds in the second half, we were able to get into an offensive flow.”

Lyons (3-7), which didn’t return a single starter from a year ago, hit four 3-pointers in jumping out to an 18-15 first quarter advantage. That margin soon swelled to as many as nine points before the Lions were held to a trio of Brady Chambers’ baskets in the third quarter.

They got back to within four at 54-50 with 2:29 remaining on a three by Michael Reilly but would get no closer. Reilly had 14 points, Chambers tallied 12 points and 16 rebounds and Liam Taylor added 12 points for Lyons, which beat St. Patrick 62-61 in the first round.

”Our guys played well enough to compete with a really, really good team,” said Lyons coach Tom Sloan, whose team finished as the runner-up in this tourney the past two years. “We continue to get better and that’s all we can ask. Each of these games we play is giving us a chance to learn and improve. Yorkville made some really nice plays in the second half. They moved the ball well and made us pay for any mistake on either end of the floor.”