Boys Basketball: Balanced Aurora Christian races past Newark

For three quarters, Friday’s nonconference game between Newark and Aurora Christian was a fairly tight contest.

But one quarter — the first, in fact — was all the difference in the game as the visiting Eagles ran out to a fast start and improved to 4-1 with the 83-54 win. Newark, the reigning Class 1A state champion, falls to 3-5.

It only took about 2 1/2 minutes for Aurora Christian to get comfortable, as it rolled to an 11-3 lead after C.J. Schutt dropped in a putback with 5:28 left in the quarter. In all, the Eagles nailed four three-pointers and hit 11 of their 18 shots to build a 28-8 lead after eight minutes.

“We came out ready to play and shot the ball well, and that always makes you look pretty good when the shots are going in,” said Eagles coach Steve Hanson. “Our plan was to make it an 84-foot game and make our depth pay off in the end.”

The Eagles spread things around as six different players scored in the quarter. Schutt had three inside buckets and six points, while guard Jake Hanson had two treys and outscored the Norsemen himself with 11 in the period.

Hanson finished the night with 15 points, one of five Eagles in double figures. Ryan McQuade scored a team-high 19 points, while Schutt posted 12 and Johnathan Harrell and Anthony Maddie added 11 apiece.

“During warmups I was shooting awful and I didn’t know what was going on,” Jake Hanson said. “I took my first shot and it felt really good. They kept leaving me open so I kept shooting.”

The Eagles wanted a fast-paced game, and the Norsemen played into it, though with the current roster of young players that wasn’t a prudent move. Newark upped the defensive intensity in the second quarter and had a better result, beginning the quarter on a 9-0 run and cutting the lead to 10 points (32-22) on a Brett Anderson three with 4:12 to go.

But Aurora Christian was able to begin pulling away, and by the end of the third quarter had a 22-point lead. Still, in the middle two quarters, the Eagles outscored Newark by just two points, 39-37, a nice stretch for a young team rebuilding and gaining experience.

“We are just looking to improve, and those second and third quarters were a good slice of basketball for us and we will build on that,” said Newark coach Rick Tollefson. “We have to learn that in the first quarter you settle in and execute and keep it close. A team like this is too good if you run with them.”

Anderson, who went just 1-for-4 and had two points in the first quarter, went off for 14 second-quarter points on his way to a game-high 33-point night. He was the only Norsemen player in double figures, with Taylor Wright adding eight points.

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