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Aurora Chrisitan looking forward to Davidson reunion

Aurora Christian will host a basketball homecoming on Jan. 24.

Coach Pat McNamara and the Eagles will host a 7:30 p.m. nonconference game against Blackhawk Christian out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Braves are coached by Aurora Christian graduate Marc Davidson, son of former Eagles coach Don Davidson, a 1995 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee. Marc remains Illinois' all-time leading rebounder with 1,942 from 1987-91.

Entering Friday's game at St. Francis, Aurora Christian is 10-4 and 1-1 in the one-year-only, four-team Suburban Christian Conference. Blackhawk Christian, a 1A school in Indiana, also enters Friday 10-4 in Davidson's second season there. Davidson's older brother, Matt, is the superintendent at Timothy Christian High School in Elmhurst.

"A lot of the old Aurora Christian crowd will be there," McNamara said.

A big part of that is the school will honor both the 1994-95 team Don Davidson led to a Class A runner-up finish, as well as his 1989-90 team that placed fourth.

That latter team went 30-4 as 6-foot-6 sophomore Marc Davidson led all state finals scorers with 108 points including a high of 11 3-point baskets.

Navigato's numbers now:

Geneva's Nate Navigato entered the season in the program's top 10 in seven of the eight career statistical categories Vikings coach Phil Ralston maintains.

We'll dispense with the coach-driven "efficiency" category - which Navigato led by 378 points over 2011 graduate Dan Trimble entering this fall - and update the other columns.

In career points Navigato has climbed to second all-time at Geneva with 1,363; Haskell Tison has 1,588.

Navigato quickly took the lead over Trimble in 3-point baskets and enters Thursday's game with Batavia having made 135.

With 73 rebounds through 16 games Navigato has risen to No. 8 on the Vikings' list at 434, but Bob Johansen's 645 looks safe.

The 6-foot-7 guard-forward first passed Cam Cook then Michael Santacaterina to claim Geneva's all-time assists mark, currently at 190.

Entering Thursday Navigato needs 4 steals to surpass Jeremy D'Amico's 111 for the program lead.

(Jeremy's father, Mark D'Amico, a 2007 Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee from his years at Lisle and a continuing Geneva fan, will probably be there to see that happen, presumably against Batavia or Jan. 27 at Elgin.)

Navigato's 62 blocked shots are 4 away from Trimble's 66 recorded from 2009-11.

Regarding career points, Navigato is 225 from tying Tison, the 1961 graduate who played at Notre Dame. Geneva has 10 regular-season games remaining plus at least one playoff game, so Navigato would have to average 20.5 points to get there. He's currently averaging 20.3.

It'll be close.

SCN-SCE greatest hits

Last week's game between St. Charles North and St. Charles East, a North Stars 78-75 win in overtime, was perhaps the best game between Tri-Cities teams since Geneva's 70-68 win over West Aurora in the Class 4A East Aurora sectional semifinals.

Here are a few extra quotes taken after that game.

Game-winning shooter Jake Ludwig: "Me and Cole (Gentry, St. Charles East guard) have been best friends since kindergarten, we played together all the way up until high school. There's always memories with him and it's always fun to compete with him."

St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin: "Just everybody from the top of the roster to the bottom, they were all-in. Vocally, mentally, physically, everyone gave what they had and tried their best to beat a very good team."

Ludwig again: "It was a huge win for us just because staying for the (Upstate Eight Conference River Division) race. We want to win the conference, and this is crucial. They're an impressive team, ranked top-10 in the state (No. 7 in Class 4A by the Associated Press on Jan. 13), and it's huge."

St. Charles East forward Mick Vyzral: "It was a great game, great atmosphere. Hats off to North. I think they just wanted it more. They were fresh off a loss (to Geneva) and in this conference it's tough and you don't want to lose two in a row, so I just think they wanted it more than us."

St. Charles East coach Patrick Woods, dismissing the aura of beating a team three times in a season: "I don't necessarily buy that so much. We talked about that a little bit as a team. In our minds you play the way you're supposed to play and if you do what you're supposed to do it shouldn't matter. In order to be a championship-caliber team you have to play that way every night, you can't take a night off. We didn't take a night off, but we took a lot of plays off tonight."

St. Charles North forward Jack Callaghan, who scored 13 points with 11 rebounds: "A lot of guys have grown up since the last time we played East (a 72-62 Saints win Dec. 6), like Armon (Osborne), Griffin (Hammer). They've just come so far since we last played East, and we're going to need them ... It just shows our depth and our resiliency, because we could have folded but we chose to keep going and we got the job done."

Poulin again: "Really it's as memorable as can be because of the big plays both teams made back and forth. You're going to remember those last couple possessions even though every one of them from the first quarter on was just as important ... But this (game) right here will go down as good as any of them. That's our opinion."

Vyzral, who scored 24 points with 14 rebounds: "It's probably a career high for both. I'm just more mad we lost the game."

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