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Aurora Christian wins 3 straight to claim title

On Dec. 6 Aurora Christian won its own Burney Wilke season-opening tournament for the second time in three years.

The Eagles clinched the title by defeating Aurora Central Catholic 64-54 on the final night to go 3-1. Aurora Christian rallied after a 73-62 season-opening loss to defending tourney champion St. Edward.

"After that first game I was excited because our guys started playing together. St. Ed's is a good team, they can make you look bad," said Aurora Christian coach Pat McNamara.

The Burney Wilke - also unofficially dubbed the "football's over" tourney in honor of perennial football title contenders Aurora Christian, Montini and Joliet Catholic - has no all-tournament team. If it did Aurora Christian's R.D. Lutze and Zach Singer would have been on it.

The former averaged 17.8 points with a high of 26 against 2011 Wilke winner Joliet Catholic; the latter averaged 16.5 points and scored 20 on Montini.

Despite the talents of those two, the Eagles' real depth is a crowded back court of Jeremiah Wright, brothers Wes and Jake Wolfe, Jacolby Maxwell and McNamara's son, also Pat. Juwan Sisco has guard height at about 6-1, but comes off the bench to play in the paint.

Entering the season freshman Jake Wolfe and newcomer Maxwell hadn't played varsity basketball, so Coach McNamara said their adjusting to the mental part of the game was, and is, instrumental to their success and that of the team.

McNamara said the entire group looked more comfortable particularly on defense in the latter games of the tournament.

"We looked good in the preseason, then we didn't do so well in the first game," he said. "And to come back against Joliet Catholic, and do well, hopefully we can carry it over to St. Francis on Friday."

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