Yohn breaks scoring record as St. Edward wallops Chicago Christian

There's a new page in the St. Edward girls basketball record book, and it belongs to Katie Yohn.

Now Yohn and her teammates would like to add another piece of hardware to the Green Wave trophy case.

With 49 seconds left in the first quarter of Monday night's Class 2A Plano sectional semifinal, Yohn dribbled, spun and put up an 8-foot jump shot to the right of the free throw lane. When the ball came through the net, the 5-foot-10 Yohn became the all-time leading scorer in St. Edward history, breaking the mark of 1,772 held by 1987 graduate Beth Hasenmiller.

More important to Yohn and her team was the 60-45 win St. Edward registered over Chicago Christian. Yohn scored 26 points to lead the way and freshman Callie Johnson had her best game of the season with 17 points.

St. Edward (18-11) will take on Bishop McNamara (17-10) at 7:30 p.m. for the sectional title and a trip to next Monday's supersectional at Elgin Community College. Bishop Mac defeated Peotone 56-33 in Monday's first semifinal.

"Now I don't have to keep getting questions asked and everyone will be off my back," smiled Yohn. "The pressure's off of me now, but we'll keep putting the pressure on ourselves to keep winning."

St. Edward led just 16-13 after Yohn's record-breaking shot, but that started the Green Wave on a 16-0 run that effectively put the game away. The Wave led 35-17 at halftime and Chicago Christian (13-17) came no closer than 12 points in the second half.

"The girls were all talking about (the record) before the game and they were all really excited for me," said the Bradley-bound Yohn. "Once I got it I think it really fueled everybody. We really wanted to win."

Said Johnson: "When she got those points we got really pumped up to keep pushing. We all stepped up to try and help her."

In addition to her 26 points, Yohn came close to a triple-double, pulling down 10 rebounds and adding 8 assists, 4 blocked shots and 6 steals before coming out of the game to a standing ovation with 1:52 left to play.

"It was a great team win again tonight," said St. Edward coach Michelle Dawson. "Katie had another great game but she really got her teammates involved again. Callie Johnson really stepped up tonight.

"I'm happy to see we've continued with the team game. We had another strong rebounding game tonight."

Maddie Kerr added 8 points for the Green Wave, who also had a good night of taking care of the basketball, committing just 11 turnovers.

But in the end the night belonged to Yohn.

"She's a terrific kid and I've enjoyed every minute of coaching her," Dawson said. "It's just her ability to make everyone around her better and to get her teammates involved and make it special and fun for everyone."

Which it would certainly be for the Green Wave with a win on Thursday.