Aurora Christian stifles Hinckley
Aurora Christian’s Steve Hanson was able to good-naturedly tease 6-foot-6 senior CJ Schutt, the kind of joke a coach can make when everyone is in a good mood following a victory.
Schutt provided the exclamation point in Aurora Christian’s 48-38 win over Hinckley-Big Rock Thursday at the 49th annual Plano Christmas Classic. He slammed home the final bucket — he said it was his first dunk attempt in a game — though it wasn’t quite the cleanest dunk.
“I asked him if he dunked it or just laid it in and pulled the net down to make it pop,” said Hanson.
All joking aside, Hanson knows what a force Schutt can be. He scored 12 of his game-high 17 points in the second half including 6 of 7 free throws.
“It took him awhile to get going but he stayed patient,” Hanson said. “He got to the free-throw line. That was our game plan, the more times he touches it the better off we are. He’s playing well, he’s just so strong.”
Normally the Eagles like to play at a faster tempo, but with three games in three days at this tournament and not too deep of a bench, Aurora Christian didn’t seem to mind Hinckley’s deliberate style.
“They kind of slowed it down but we just kept after it and continued to play our game,” Schutt said.
The teams traded the lead six times in the second quarter.
Eagles sophomore Johnathan Harrell scored all 10 of his points in the opening half including a pull-up jumper for a 19-17 lead and then a steal and assist on Cory Windle’s layup that beat the second-quarter buzzer and made it 21-17 at halftime.
Hinckley Big Rock (11-4) tied the game three times in the third quarter but never took a lead, the final deadlock at 30. Jake Hanson came up with a steal and fed Ryan Suttle on a fastbreak that put the Eagles ahead to stay.
The Eagles only made 2 of 6 shots from the field in the final quarter but got all the offense they needed at the free-throw line sinking 10 of 11.
“That’s what winners do, that’s the difference between winning and losing right there,” coach Hanson said. “We took care of business. I know it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.”
Suttle and Harrell both added 10 points for the Eagles, who rebounded from a 19-point loss to Belvidere on Wednesday. Hanson was most impressed with his team’s zone defense that took away the Royals’ ability to penetrate.
“We bounced back from yesterday when we really struggled,” Hanson said. “We’re still not shooting the ball like I think we can. But they get after it. They fight on every possession. We wanted to stop dribble penetration and we did.”
Bernie Conley led the Royals with 10 points.
“They made free throws, we didn’t make our free throws the second night in a row,” Hinckley coach Bill Sambrookes said. “We made some silly mistakes. With six guys back with that much experience we need to show more composure than that. We’re better than that.”
No. 4 seed Aurora Christian (9-3) will play Ottawa at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the fifth-place game of the 24-team tournament. Ottawa coach Mark Cooper and Hanson were high school teammates at Mendota.
“It will be fun,” Hanson said.