Boys Basketball: West Aurora bounces back with dominant win

Updated: January 13, 2012 11:16PM

Coming off its first DuPage Valley Conference loss of the season last Saturday to Naperville North, West Aurora’s boys basketball team wasted little time getting back on track Friday at West Chicago.

The focused Blackhawks came out on fire, building a 22-point lead 11 minutes into the game and leading by as many as 28 en route to a 64-45 win.

West Aurora (13-3, 5-1) scored the first 15 points of the game and took a 29-7 lead with five minutes left in the second quarter and never looked back.

“We wanted to come out and establish ourselves because we knew that West Chicago almost beat Naperville North and Glenbard East, so we wanted to come out here and prove ourselves a little bit,” West Aurora senior Juwan Starks said. “There was not a lot of playing on the bus. There was a lot of focus and leadership on the bus.”

Starks, Jayquan Lee and Jontrell Walker each hit three-pointers as part of the 15-0 run to start the game for the Blackhawks. A 13-1 run that started in the first quarter and ended early in the second then pushed the lead to 29-7.

Starks was the star for West Aurora. He scored 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field, had five steals — one of which led to a dunk that started the second half. West Chicago’s leading scorer, Justin Mundt, led the Wildcats (3-11, 0-6) with 12 points, but only six of those points came with Starks guarding him.

Walker was also a catalyst, scoring 13 points in the first three quarters to complement Starks.

“We wanted to establish ourselves early in the game,” Starks said of him and Walker. “Once we get hot, our teammates tend to get hot. Even our bench gets hot sometimes.”

That was the case on Friday. West Aurora’s bench scored 12 points in the second quarter and 23 points overall in the win. Spencer Thomas led the way off the bench with seven points and three steals.

“Spencer and Aaron Kennebrew (four points) both played well,” West Aurora coach Gordie Kerkman said. “Both of those guys are capable. They just need that confidence. Hopefully this will give it to them.”

The Blackhawks turn around and host Lockport Saturday, confident in knowing they put the Naperville North loss behind them.

“We had a tough week of practice this week,” Starks said. “Monday and Tuesday weren’t real good. Coach got on us and made us run a lot. Wednesday, we really came together and bonded as a team and did everything we could do.”

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