Boys Basketball: Yorkville Christian completes dominant week, routs Marquette for regional title

SERENA – Yorkville Christian completely dominated the Class 1A Serena Regional as expected.

The No. 1-seeded Mustangs won all three of their games on Al Stegman Court outscoring their regional opponents by a whopping average of 45.6 points per contest

Yorkville Christian completed its dominant week with a 73-32 win over fourth-seeded Marquette Academy in Friday’s regional final.

YC (20-13) – the No. 2 ranked 1A team in the most current Associated Press poll – flexed its muscle on both ends of the floor. The Mustangs forced 20 turnovers while also shooting a very respectable 24 of 52 (46%) from the floor holding the Crusaders to just 13 of 46 (28%) overall off the court and a mere 1 of 23 (4%) from beyond the 3 point arc.

The Mustangs have now won three regional championships in a row heading into next Tuesday’s Class 1A Woodland Sectional semifinal matchup versus Chicago Ellison in rural Streator scheduled for a 7 p.m. first tip.

“Our kids were locked in first with their defensive assignments tonight where our defense created our offense,” Yorkville Christian coach Aaron Sovern said. “If we can continue to do that like we did in our first three games here at Serena we’ll be pretty tough. This win was a blessing, the kids played really hard against a well-coached and talented Marquette team. We’ll enjoy this tonight but this is just a step one for us. The ultimate goal is to win eight games and a state championship. We’ve crossed off games one, two, and three but we’ve still got a long way to go but we’re sure happy this evening.”

The Mustangs saw all five starters score in double figures, led by Duke recruit Jaden Schutt’s 17 points. David Douglas Jr. added 14 points and a game-high seven rebounds.

Seniors K.J. Vasser and Tyler Burrows along with junior Brayden Long all totaled 11 points each with Yorkville Christian exerting its incredible power throughout the proceedings.

Marquette (20-11) concluded its season after 11 and 10 points respectively from seniors Brady and Beau Ewers.

“You just don’t see athleticism like that and they have a great club so I wish them the best and I know they’ll be a tough out for any team they’ll play the rest of the way,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We couldn’t buy a shot from the outside and that was our only chance against a talented team like this. But I’m so proud of our guys and our seniors. Yorkville Christian is for real, no doubt.”

The Mustangs missed on their first eight 3 point attempts in the first quarter but still bolted to an 11-1 lead after Schutt forced a steal off the press and hammered home a dunk at the 4:50 mark which brought the crowd to its feet.

“Defense carries us and even though we didn’t get off to a great shooting start we countered that with creating early turnovers,” Schutt said. “Tyler and K.J did a great job pressuring the ball on our press speeding them up and I was able to get the steal and get an easy runout for the dunk.”

Vasser hit a runner in the lane with 55 seconds left in the opening period that put YC up 21-3 one quarter in.

Beau Bewers added all 10 of his points in the low post for Marquette in the second quarter but the Mustangs we’re still able to extend the lead to 43-20 at the half. Long nailed a pair of triples at 5:20 and 3:30 before closing out the first 16 minutes with a nifty runner at the break that put YC up 45-20 with two quarters left.

There, Douglas Jr. contributed with a three-point play at 5:01 followed by a left-baseline trey at 4:10 that put his team ahead 54-24.

“I just wanted to go out there and play hard tonight seeing that this was my first regional championship game with my team,” Douglas Jr. said. “I was able to hit some key shots in the third quarter and we were able to close things out from there.”

Senior Elijah Fisher nailed a top-of-the-key 3 point bomb that concluded the third period with the Mustangs well in front 67-28 as a running clock ensued.