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Aoki's A-OK from 3-point range as Stevenson rolls

When glancing at the wall in Stevenson High School's gymnasium, you'll see Jalen Brunson's name listed by most of the individual school records for boys basketball.

Well, after Friday night, you'll obviously still see Brunson's name on the record board. But you'll also see junior guard Ryuji Aoki's name.

Aoki was on fire Friday night as he tied his running mate with a school-record seven 3-pointers made in a single game.

"Believe me, it was a total team effort. The big men were setting great screens and I was getting awesome passes from the guards," said Aoki, who wound up pouring in a career- and game-high 30 points during Stevenson's 102-47 romp against visiting Mundelein on senior night.

With Stevenson (20-2, 10-0 NSC Lake) comfortably ahead 25-7 after the opening act, Aoki started doing his thing, scoring all 30 of his points over the last three quarters.

He hit 3 treys in both the second and fourth quarters, with one in the third.

"He's a really nice shooter and he's good at catching and shooting," said Pats coach Pat Ambrose. "We're just working on his ballhandling a little bit."

Actually, Aoki was more ecstatic when his 3-point play ignited the crowd in the closing seconds of the game. That's because it put the Patriots over that 100-point mark in scoring for the first time this season.

"I was really hyped," said Aoki after his bucket put the hosts ahead 101-47. "It was exciting because that's the first time I've seen a high school game where a team scored 100 points."

And speaking of Brunson, the Villanova-bound senior guard did his usual thing, scoring 20 points before being taken out midway through the third period and the game well in hand.

Brunson helped get Stevenson get off to the fast start by getting 13 of his points in the first quarter. Senior guard Connor Cashaw quietly tossed in 15 points and was also a big part of that first-quarter blitzing when he scored 7.

Meanwhile, the victories have been hard to come by this season, but Mundelein fights just as hard as anyone whenever it takes the court and it's only a matter of time before the effort is reflected in wins.

Junior forward Isaiah Woolford provided a big inside presence when he scored 14 points and snared 11 boards. Senior forward Kevin Marcotte, who chipped in with 10 points, hit 2 free throws with 2:07 left in the half that drew Mundelein (2-25, 0-11) to within 40-20. But Aoki promptly answered with a trey as Stevenson closed the half on an 11-1 run.

"They're the No. 1 team in the state for a reason," said Mustangs coach Corey Knigge. "We're just we're trying to get better at every level. We need to learn how to compete every second of every play."

Mundelein enjoys a few days off before traveling to Loyola next Wednesday for a 7 p.m. tilt, while Stevenson returns to the court next Friday night when it ventures out to Lake Zurich for another Lake Division contest.

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