Boys Basketball: Hot-shooting Dayvion Johnson, Yorkville beat Plainfield North in SPC opener, stay perfect on season

YORKVILLE – Dayvion Johnson walked into a different environment when he transferred to Yorkville from Yorkville Christian for this school year.

But what did he expect, basketball-wise?

“A very competitive team. They’re very competitive,” said Johnson, a 6-foot junior guard. “They just didn’t have the pieces they needed until now. We have all the pieces. We just have to keep working.”

Johnson indeed is the perfect puzzle piece to this particular Foxes’ team. With his smooth stroke and quick release, his perimeter game is an ideal complement to take the pressure off Yorkville posts LeBaron Lee and Jason Jakstys.

So far, so good. Johnson hit six 3-pointers and scored a game-high 20 points, and Lee and Jakstys also scored in double figures as Yorkville never trailed and remained unbeaten with Tuesday’s 66-51 win over Plainfield North in the Southwest Prairie Conference opener.

Lee scored 14 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and Jakstys had 10 points and nine rebounds for Yorkville (4-0, 1-0), which never looked back after jumping out to a 7-0 lead.

Yorkville, coming off a 9-21 season, is almost halfway to last year’s win total. Having Johnson, a reserve guard for Class 1A state champion Yorkville Christian last season but who went to middle school at Yorkville Middle School, back has helped.

“Feeling really confident, excited. We have six new transfers [from Yorkville Christian], it’s coming along really well,” Lee said. “I love the chemistry right now. It’s slowly building. We have a little work to do but tonight was a good test to see where we stand.”

Junior guard Michael Dunn scored all nine of his points in the first quarter to get Yorkville out to a 17-9 start. Yorkville scored the first seven points of the second half, too, to push a 29-21 halftime lead to 36-21.

Johnson, who hit four threes in Yorkville’s win over Burlington Central Saturday, kept the hot hand going Tuesday. He hit three of his six threes in the third quarter, the third as time expired to send Yorkville into the fourth quarter up 46-32.

Yorkville coach John Holakovsky isn’t at all surprised to see it from Johnson, who hit six of his eight 3-point attempts and also handled point guard duties when Dunn was out.

“We’ve been working on shooting every day and he’s been pretty consistent with his numbers whether it’s our three drill, Bradley Beal drill, whatever drill we do he’s at the top of the list,” Holakovsky said. “Another thing about Dayvion is he’s an extremely hard worker. He comes in early, he stays late. He wants to be really good at shooting and everything he does.”

Just don’t tell Johnson, or Lee for that matter, that Johnson is just a shooter. Lee knows his game well from when they went to school together at Yorkville Middle School, and is glad to be reunited.

“He for sure brings the shooting element, but he also makes great passes,” Lee said. “He finds you. He’s a great disher. He’s able to facilitate and open things up for us big guys. I love it.”

Evan Czarnik scored 17 points and hit five of Plainfield North’s eight 3-pointers and Jeffrey Fleming added 12 points for the Tigers (3-2, 0-1). Plainfield North did not have any offense other than four 3-pointers until Fleming’s basket midway through the second quarter.

“We never got into any offensive rhythm. That’s the story,” Tigers coach Robert Krahulik said. “We didn’t attack the rim, didn’t force them to use their bodies. We relied on the outside too much.”

That’s hardly the Tigers’ game, although Krahulik admitted that the presence of the 6-foot-10 Jakstys and 6-5 Lee could have had something to do with that. Czarnik, more of a shooter, is Plainfield North’s only starter taller than 6-foot-3.

“We want to get inside, we want to attack off the dribble. Tonight we didn’t attack off the dribble,” Krahulik said. “I don’t know if their size got to us.”