Aurora Christian runs away from Illiana Christian

On a night Aurora Christian's boys basketball team scored a season-high 84 points, it was their play on the other end of the court that earned glowing reviews.

Trailing after the first quarter, Aurora Christian held Illiana Christian to 1-of-10 shooting and 6 points in the second quarter. The Eagles' offense followed suit, scoring 21 points in the second quarter and 30 more in the third for a 51-17 advantage in the middle two periods of their 84-53 win.

"We finally put it together tonight on the defensive end," first-year Aurora Christian coach Marc Davidson said. "That's something we've been waiting for all year. We haven't had that kind of energy on the defensive end. Tonight for whatever reason we had it and kind of started clicking and got them a little frustrated offensively."

Illiana Christian (6-9, 0-3) led 15-14 after one quarter, taking advantage of getting into the bonus with 2:50 remaining in the quarter.

Jeremy Anderson's 3-pointer tied the game at 17. Luke Johnson's putback basket 20 seconds later gave the Eagles their first lead at 19-17, and they never trailed again.

Both Anderson and Johnson are sophomores, and they both enjoyed strong games Friday. Anderson drained three 3-pointers and scored 11 points, while Johnson scored 15 points and grabbed 6 rebounds.

"Getting open looks and taking them as they come and they'll drop if you keep shooting them," Anderson said of his hot shooting beyond the arc.

Eagles senior Nate Hill led all scorers with 19 points. Eric Anderson came off the bench and posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.

Anderson is one of several members of the Class 4A state runner-up football team who are looking to continue their success this winter.

"One of the slogans we have in football is keeping the pedal down," Eric Anderson said. "We have that mentality to keep going, keep staying aggressive and put the team away."

The Eagles started the third quarter on a 13-2 run to push their lead to 48-23. Eric Anderson scored on layups as Illiana could not keep up with the Eagles.

"We wanted to make it a point at halftime we wanted to push the ball down the floor and try to get easy baskets," Davidson said. "We felt we were deeper than them. Eric did a real nice job of running the floor and got some easy ones."

Jordan Roberts contributed a little of everything with 7 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists while Jawanza Wright came off the bench to score 8.

Jake Victorson led the Vikings with 18 points.