Bolingbrook takes Tosh title from York

Many signs pointed toward York's favor to win its second straight Jack Tosh Holiday Classic championship.

The Dukes earned quality wins over Rolling Meadows and knocked off Schaumburg in their past two games - two teams led by high profile players in Max Christie and Chris Hodges, respectively. They had a large home crowd in their favor on Tuesday.

But the Dukes ran into a motivated and balanced Bolingbrook team intent on winning its first tourney championship.

Kai Evans scored 18 points and added 7 rebounds, Darius Burford supplied 14 points and 10 boards and Isaiah Stafford had 13 points as Bolingbrook relied on a collective effort and a stifling defensive performance in a 57-45 win in the 46th annual Jack Tosh Holiday Classic championship game.

The Dukes (10-1) went 4-1 in the tourney, falling short of defending their tourney title after getting outrebounded 36-22, committing 13 turnovers and shooting 32.7 percent from the field.

"We're going to learn from this. You hate to lose a championship game at your school," Shockey said. "It's an eye opener for us. But we have made tremendous strides from the start of the season. They played really good defense and did a good job rebounding. This team has heart. We battled every game, had tough games and a lot of guys stepped up."

With the Raiders' on-ball pressure to go with interior length causing fits for York, especially in their halfcourt offense, the Dukes were forced to lean on Shockey to carry most of the offensive load. The 6-foot-3 Shockey shot 9 of 20 from the floor to finish with 23 points, with Nick Hesch adding 8 points.

"The kids did a great job competing throughout the tournament, to lose to a very good Bolingbrook team is nothing to hang your head on," York coach Vince Doran said. "(Bolingbrook's) pressure covers a lot. They play hard and they were a great addition to the tournament. They played better than us. It's a great experience to play a team like that, for there's only a few teams in our league that can simulate that type of pressure."

After York scored the game's first four points, Bolingbrook (8-2) answered with a 9-0 run. Burford drilled a 3-pointer and Stafford knocked down a corner 3 in a key segment that gave the Raiders a 23-16 lead that they would not relinquish.

Burford put the game out of reach with two baskets late in the third for a 40-28 lead. The Dukes were hampered when Grace fouled out at the 3:13 mark of the third.

"Our defense was amazing," Burford said. "We had our linebacker, Tyler McLaurin, in the back rebounding and getting his hands up and contesting all layups was big."