Boys Basketball: Balanced attack leads West Aurora past East Aurora

Updated: May 9, 2012 10:07AM

Juwan Starks finished 15 points below his 21-point scoring average Saturday, but it didn’t matter much as his West Aurora teammates filled it up on the big stage at Northern Illinois University’s Convocation Center.

Junior guard Jayquan Lee and junior center Joshua McAuley tied for game scoring honors with 11 points each in the No. 24 Blackhawks’ 73-42 rout of East Aurora.

“He took care of the basketball and shot it well and distributed it well,” West coach Gordie Kerkman said, explaining how Lee was named the MVP of the game in the 215th meeting of the rivals. “We got into our offense a lot better when he was running things.”

Kerkman’s Blackhawks, 7-1 this season, lead the series 128-87. The Tomcats are 0-9.

Starks committed his second foul of the game with 1:43 remaining in the first quarter and sat the rest of the half.

“He’s got to understand when you’ve got a foul on you and you’re on the double-team, you can’t reach,” Kerkman said. “He had a pretty good scoring average going for him.”

Starks opened the second half with a resounding dunk off a feed from Lee, who stole the ball just seconds after East inbounded the ball to start the third quarter.

East was short-handed with its top two scorers, guard DeJon Talbert (concussion) and forward Larry Reynolds (academic suspension) sidelined.

The Tomcats led 4-2 on baskets by Justin Wilson (nine points) and Jonathan Villezcas (10 points) with 4:24 left in the first quarter, but the Blackhawks responded with a 15-0 run.

“I thought we played well early and they had a slow start, but then they had the big run,” East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries said. “We are shorthanded, but at the same time, you still have to execute the offense.”

Mike McAllister also had 10 points for East.

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