{"id":101895,"date":"2025-12-27T01:08:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101895\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T01:08:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:08:08","slug":"yorkville-christian-defense-stymies-morris-in-first-round-plano-win-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/101895\/","title":{"rendered":"Yorkville Christian defense stymies Morris in first-round Plano win \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Yorkville Christian\u2019s<\/a> defense is clicking, the Mustangs can run past teams. <\/p>\n

During their opening game in the 62nd annual Plano Christmas Classic, the Mustangs got a running clock against Morris<\/a> during the fourth quarter of Friday afternoon\u2019s 59-37 victory.<\/p>\n

Yorkville Christian (8-2) advances to face the winner of Mendota\/Hinckley-Big Rock on Saturday at 7 p.m. Morris (1-5) will resume at 12:30 against the loser of Mendota\/Hinckley-Big Rock.<\/p>\n

\"Morris's<\/p>\n

Plano Christmas Classic Basketball: Morris at Yorkville Christian Morris’s Cade Osborne (3) puts in a lay up during their Plano Christmas Classic basketball game between Morris at Yorkville Christian Friday, Dec 26, 2025 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

\u201cThey hit some threes early and we weren\u2019t anticipating that,\u201d Mustangs coach Aaron Sovern said. \u201cBut they are so well coached. When that was our draw in the first round I was like \u2018Aw gosh,\u2019 because he (coach Joe Blumberg) does such a nice job with them. They run nice stuff and they guard, so in another respect it\u2019s a great first game because it keeps us locked in. We didn\u2019t come out as crisp as we needed to and they kind of hit us in the mouth and we went back and forth in first quarter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baylen Lee\u2019s layup got Morris to within 16-15 to close out the opening quarter, but Morris wouldn\u2019t get any closer.<\/p>\n

A couple of free throws from Tray Alford completed a 7-0 run from the Mustangs that saw them begin to pull away in the second quarter, leading 30-18 with 3:10 remaining in the first half.<\/p>\n

\"Yorkville<\/p>\n

Plano Christmas Classic Basketball: Morris at Yorkville Christian Yorkville Christian’s Tray Alford (4) fights for a loose ball during their Plano Christmas Classic basketball game between Morris at Yorkville Christian Friday, Dec 26, 2025 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

After enjoying a 36-22 advantage at halftime, the Mustangs opened the second half with a 3-pointer from Jordan Purvis followed by a steal and a layup from Alford to pull ahead 41-22 just 31 seconds into the second half.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked how we came out in the third quarter and asserted dominance right away,\u201d Sovern said. \u201cThe defense got it going and that\u2019s what we always preach – your defense is going to create your offense and that proved true for those guys. Jayden Riley (13 points, eight assists) drives the bus for us and gets the ball where it needs to be, and also freshman Jayden Alford (five points, four rebounds) came off their bench and drew some fouls and caused some havoc, which is his job, so a shoutout to them for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tray Alford led the Mustangs with 16 points. He added 5 assists and 4 steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I like to tell all my teammates, and all my guys, is we got to turn our defense into offense,\u201d Tray Alford said. \u201cWhen one turns up, we all turn up and it\u2019s tough to stop. We\u2019ve got to keep playing like that. Hopefully we\u2019re ready now for the tournament and hopefully we can get the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n

A better start will certainly help their chances.<\/p>\n

\"Yorkville<\/p>\n

Plano Christmas Classic Basketball: Morris at Yorkville Christian Yorkville Christian’s Tray Alford (4) drives baseline during their Plano Christmas Classic basketball game between Morris at Yorkville Christian Friday, Dec 26, 2025 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should\u2019ve come out stronger with a lot more energy,\u201d Alford said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had a couple games with a slow start and then just pick it back up. Tomorrow we got to come out ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Purvis scored 11 points and helped a defensive effort that forced 26 turnovers, while the Mustangs took care of the ball, limiting their turnovers to 7.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefense just starts from care, and I think we all care,\u201d Purvis said. \u201cWe all want to win so if everybody gets each other going, and we\u2019re all getting hyped on the bench and that energy, it really helps a lot. And the passes on offense. They always thread the needle, always getting tough passes to me. and I just got to make them look good since they make me look good.\u201d<\/p>\n

RJ Kennedy and Caden Medler led Morris with eight points apiece. Lee added seven points and Landon Norris had six.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Yorkville Christian\u2019s defense is clicking, the Mustangs can run past teams. During their opening game in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[35359,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-101895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}