Starks, West Aurora have an answer for York
It would be tough to find a sweeter shooting touch from the perimeter than York’s David Cohn. Jake Rzeszutko is pretty clutch from 3-point land, too.
Overall floor balance and inside presence, however, is what West Aurora had over the visiting Dukes on Friday. The Blackhawks, behind forward Juwan Starks’ 23 points and center Josh McAuley’s 6 points, 7 rebounds and 6 blocks, won the nonconference game 67-42.
Guard Jontrel Walker scored 10 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to help West Aurora (8-1) seal the deal with a 26-point quarter, and the Blackhawks got 11 points and 11 rebounds from forward Chandler Thomas.
Off the bench his brother, Spencer Thomas, and swingman Brandon Gossett also were effective as was starting guard Jayquan Lee.
“I think we’ll be tough to beat if we play like that every game,” McAuley said after West Aurora made 23 of 51 shots, hit 18 of 22 free throws and grabbed 33 rebounds to 25 for York (4-5).
Cohn, who canned seven 3-pointers and a game-high 25 points; and Rzeszutko, with 15 points, were the only two York players to make a field goal. Half of York’s 46 shots were 3’s, and the Dukes were 4-of-23 inside the 3-point arc.
“We’re hanging in there with the 3s, but you can’t live and die on 3s,” said Dukes coach Tom Kleinschmidt. “If you’re a jump-shooting team you’re going to get beaten most nights, so you’ve got to have a little of both (inside-out game).”
West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman couldn’t recall the last time an opponent played a zone defense, and York’s 2-3 zone limited the damage early. West Aurora led just 12-11 after a quarter, 25-19 at halftime.
York pulled within 27-25 early in the third quarter when McAuley scored twice in the paint and Starks canned a 3 and added a tip-in to key a 12-1 Blackhawks run.
“We saw the advantage that we had in our post ... so we really wanted to get them inside and have them go to work,” Starks said of McAuley and the Spencer brothers.
A pair of Cohn 3s and another by Rzeszutko cut York’s deficit to 44-38 early in the fourth quarter when a mini-run ending with a Lee 3 upped the lead to 51-38 with five minutes left. The Blackhawks spread the court to run clock and made 9 of 10 free throws down the stretch.
“Their big men did their job,” Cohn said. “That’s what you need to do, you need to have a complete game both inside and out.”
As far as a tuneup for West Aurora’s annual sojourn to the tough Pontiac tournament, Kerkman said Friday was “probably pretty good.”
Of course, the hall of famer wasn’t completely satisfied.
“We didn’t get the shots that we would normally get against a zone, because we didn’t execute very well,” he said.