{"id":115098,"date":"2026-01-08T04:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/115098\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T04:39:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T04:39:07","slug":"freshman-kiana-oguleis-big-fourth-quarter-shots-send-yorkville-christian-past-plano-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/115098\/","title":{"rendered":"Freshman Kiana Ogulei\u2019s big fourth-quarter shots send Yorkville Christian past Plano \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kiana Ogulei is part of a young Yorkville Christian<\/a> starting lineup surrounding Hope College commit Payton Wallin.<\/p>\n

Ogulei is one of two freshmen who start. So do two sophomores, one of whom \u2013 Avery Herron \u2013 is back playing basketball after focusing on volleyball the last three years.<\/p>\n

A freshman, sure, but Ogulei has no fear, which she demonstrated Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Ogulei missed her first four 3-point attempts, part of a cold shooting night across the board for both Yorkville Christian and Plano.<\/a><\/p>\n

But she stuck three 3s in the fourth quarter, and those big shots boosted the visiting Mustangs to a 38-30 nonconference win at Plano.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I went into the locker room at halftime I just had the mindset that I needed to lock in,\u201d Ogulei said. \u201cMy shots weren\u2019t falling and at halftime I reset. I was like OK, I\u2019m just going to play my hardest. If they don\u2019t fall, they don\u2019t fall. But I\u2019m going to give it my all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yorkville<\/p>\n

Boys Basketball: Yorkville Christian at Plano Yorkville Christian’s Kiana Ogulei (33) races down the court with the ball during their basketball game between Yorkville Christian at Plano Wednesday, Jan 07, 2026 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

They indeed fell at an opportune time for Ogulei, who scored 11 of her game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Her first 3-pointer, with 7:18 left, broke a 23-23 tie to give Yorkville Christian (8-7) the lead for good. She followed with back-to-back threes to give the Mustangs a commanding 36-28 lead with 3:46 left, particularly in a game where points were hard to come by.<\/p>\n

The teams, which were also tied 16-16 at halftime, shot a combined 24-for-98 from the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to think that the next shot will go down,\u201d Ogulei said. \u201cI\u2019m almost waiting for the first shot. Once the first shot goes down, it kind of lifts me up. And then all my other shots go in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ogulei\u2019s late offense was a lift for a Yorkville Christian team on a night when its star was not at her best physically.<\/p>\n

Wallin, battling the flu, shot just 4-for-17 but still managed 11 points, 11 rebounds and five steals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t know until the middle of the game, she said I feel like I\u2019m going to throw up \u2013 she\u2019d been sick all day and still had a double-double,” Yorkville Christian coach John McAdams said. \u201cShe is probably going to be upset with herself but we\u2019re not. The thing about Plano is they\u2019re well-coached. They scouted us, they played us in the summer and they keyed on her. They put their best defender on Payton.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know anytime you come to Plano you\u2019re going to play a tough team. We\u2019re lucky to come out of here with a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yorkville<\/p>\n

Boys Basketball: Yorkville Christian at Plano Yorkville Christian’s Payton Wallin (25) tries an underhand shot at the basket during their basketball game between Yorkville Christian at Plano Wednesday, Jan 07, 2026 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

Plano itself was short-handed. <\/p>\n

Its own freshman point guard, Le\u2019Niya Viser, turned an ankle late in the second half of a loss to Kaneland on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping to get her back by Monday,\u201d Plano coach Tristan Spivey said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to not have her. We play again Thursday, and again Friday, four games in four nights. We got some different girls in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite its offensive struggles, which included 4-for-22 shooting from beyond the arc and 21 turnovers, Spivey was pleased with the effort.<\/p>\n

Jadyn Long scored 11 points, Jailyn Brown eight points and Chloe Rowe had six points and 11 rebounds for the Reapers (7-9).<\/p>\n

\u201cProud of my girls,\u201d Spivey said. \u201cI thought it was one of our more complete performances in a while. Yorkville Christian is a good team, they\u2019re probably going to win another regional title. Payton Wallin is one of the best players in the area and I thought we did a good job defensively on her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yorkville Christian\u2019s win is its second straight after going 0-4 as the smallest school at the Montini Christmas Tournament, and following that up with a competitive 57-50 loss to Kaneland.<\/p>\n

And McAdams was not surprised to see Ogulei having a big hand in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Montini tournament, she\u2019s been a different player,\u201d McAdams said. \u201cThat was a tough tournament for us, the only 1A school there. I think Kiana grew leaps and bounds from before we started the tournament to the end. She\u2019s getting a little more aggressive, a little more confident. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe has the confidence to shoot and we do too. The coaching staff tells her all the time that even though she\u2019s a freshman and we have a 1,000-point scorer, we\u2019re looking for you to shoot.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Boys Basketball: Yorkville Christian at Plano Plano’s Chloe Rowe (24) grabs a rebound during their basketball game between Yorkville Christian at Plano Wednesday, Jan 07, 2026 in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kiana Ogulei is part of a young Yorkville Christian starting lineup surrounding Hope College commit Payton Wallin. Ogulei…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[36760,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-115098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-girls-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115098","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=115098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}