YHS Boys Basketball's Tournament Play Prepares Foxes For Tough Conference

Winning a basketball tournament can be a very joyful and satisfying experience.

It can also be an opportunity for a team to grow so that it’s playing its best when the games matter most during the rugged conference season.

The Yorkville boys basketball team hopes to make a deep and successful run during Plano’s 49th Annual Christmas Classic, Dec. 26-30.

The Foxes picked up their first conference victory (final score: 59-49) when they hosted Sycamore on Friday. Then, they’ll look for tournament triumphs to correlate into conference success.

“We just have to be more prepared and find ways to win,” Yorkville coach Dan McGuire said. “Sometimes you have to win the hard way and you always have to come out and be ready to go.”

Yorkville (6-2 through Dec. 15) certainly came out in fine fashion to begin the season, while wasting no time in treating the first-year head coach to a game whose outcome was uncertain until the buzzer sounded.

The Foxes beat Streator, 55-54, in the opening game of the Sandwich Thanksgiving Tournament. Cody Bailey put the Foxes ahead 55-53 with his field goal with 1.1 seconds remaining, but Streator’s Tyler Berta was fouled on the ensuing inbounds play but was unable to connect on both free throws to send the game into overtime.

Berta’s miss not only gave the Foxes the victory but it carried the momentum in their favor as they dominated the rest of the tournament, recording big victories against Serena (72-33), Newark (57-26) and host Sandwich (50-26).

“We went into the tournament to win it,” Yorkville senior guard Brandon Holmes said. “We knew we were going to play good teams so we felt like we were going to be able to compete and win that tournament and fortunately we did that.”

Unfortunately, the Foxes might’ve brought some Tryptophan along with a championship trophy when it returned to action on Dec. 2, traveling to DeKalb for their conference opener, as well as first-ever contest in DeKalb’s new gym.

Facing a loud and raucous crowd and struggling to find many open scoring chances against DeKalb’s man-to-man defense, the Foxes connected on just 1-of-18 three-pointers and dropped a 46-40 decision.

“They hadn’t won a game yet after playing in a tough Oswego tournament and they were opening up their new gym with their first conference game,” McGuire said. “They had a lot of things to play for and it showed. We weren’t ready for them.”

The Foxes erased their bad memories of the Barbs the following night, beating Plano, 62-50, thanks to a 14-point effort from Bailey and 10 points from Holmes.

An opportunity to draw even at 1-all in conference awaited on Dec. 10 at Rochelle, but the Foxes once again fell short, losing 85-76 in overtime.

“We feel that we’ve played at least two quarters in each game, but it’s not enough,” Yorkville guard Derek Piszczek said. “We’re just trying to improve on that. We know we need to be consistent for all four quarters.”

An easy non-conference game against IMSA on Dec. 13 helped the Foxes return to their winning ways as they breezed to an 89-27 victory behind 13 points apiece from Stephen Jones and Bailey, a duo that’s leading the team offensively. They were all-tournament selections at Sandwich, and before the IMSA game, Jones was averaging 13 points per game while Bailey was at 10.8.

“They didn’t play a lot last year but are scoring this season,” McGuire said. “Josh Williams (8.3 ppg) and Derek (Piszczek) are four-year players, but for the rest of us, who plays depends a lot on who we play. Against Rochelle a lot more guards played because they pressed more so it comes down to match ups and who we think can help us succeed.”

Other notable contributors this season for the Foxes have been Taylor Carter (3.7 ppg), Ilir Emini, Cody Knudsen and Brett Assell.

As a new head coach, McGuire instituted a fresh offensive system over the summer and it has now taken the Foxes very long to adjust.

“They worked really hard at it and the thing is that they really like how versatile it is,” McGuire said. “We only run one offense and that means we believe in doing this one thing and doing it well. They’ve bought into it and hopefully it continues to build into their confidence.”

The fact that it creates numerous opportunities on different spots on the court, certainly caught the attention of the Foxes.

“It definitely fits our team,” Jones said. “We have players that can play well at different positions and there’s no specific position in the offense so anyone can be in the post, at the wing, bring the ball up, so you can see different aspects of each player.”

Free throw shooting is one offensive category that needs to improve if the Foxes hope to get back into the conference race. The team has converted only 42-of-80 (52 percent) of its chances.

“We’ve shot pretty terribly thus far and it has cost us in some games,” Holmes said. “We definitely have to do better. I don’t know what the problem is in particular, so we just have to keep working on it in practice. Maybe it’s confidence or getting into a routine.”

Yorkville lost to eventual-champion Rockford Christian during the semifinals of the Plano tournament last season, but rebounded for a third-place finish in the 24-team tournament. The Foxes will look to duplicate that success after Christmas.

The team will have several days to practice after the tournament before what looks to be a daunting weekend on Jan. 6-7. The Foxes will host Kaneland as they return to conference play on Jan. 6 and then travel to face a very good Oswego team on Jan. 7.

“When we get back that will be a huge game on Friday,” McGuire said. “And then we’ll have Oswego, so once we get done with our Christmas schedule we’ll have be ready to rock and roll.”

The room for error in conference is small after opening 0-2 but you can’t count the Foxes out yet.

“We’re going to have to win all our games at home and steal a few on the road,” McGuire said. “These are outstanding kids and I couldn’t ask for a better group. They realize they can be very good and now they just need to figure out how to win the close games in conference, because even though we’re senior-dominant (9 players), a lot of those kids didn’t play last year so we’re learning a lot as we go along.”