Yorkville Christian beats Serena for first regional championship

SHABBONA – Yorkville Christian senior Danielle Bulson was getting to the basket against Serena during Thursday’s Class 1A Indian Creek Regional championship game in Shabbona.

At times, Serena’a Macy Mahler got in her way to make a defensive play, but the Mustangs stood strong when the game got tight late, winning the first regional title in school history, 48-41.

“This is the fourth year of it, so I’m really happy for a couple of the seniors because we started out when we had only five girls, maybe six, and they took their lumps,” Mustangs coach Dr. Jeff Schutt said. “But now that they’ve gone through the four years - and I took it over after that first year - and so now it’s my third year with them and man have they made a lot of progress, and the heart these girls have shown has been tremendous.”

The Mustangs led 27-17 at halftime, but the Huskers fought back, cutting their deficit in half after the third.

“We had to chip away, chip away and we did that and we got it to three at the beginning of the fourth quarter,” Huskers coach Jim Jobst said. “Then it was pretty much even there in the fourth quarter, but there was a stretch there in the second quarter where we had too many turnovers.”

Jenna Setchell, one of the five Serena seniors, scored 12 points. Junior Kendall Whiteaker had eight points.

Mahler drew her fifth charge, denying Bulson with 1:41 remaining and her team trailing 35-26.

After sophomore Anna Hjerpe’s three-pointer and Bulson split two free throws, the Huskers were within 35-30 at the end of three.

They were there at 38-35 when Mahler went down hard attempting to draw her sixth charge. Instead she went to the bench with 2:18 remaining after being escorted by Setchell and Jobst. She’d return right after the Mustangs had extended their lead to 44-38 with 50 seconds left to play off an inbounds play to junior Payton Wallin.

“I would say our coach had the idea to box up and we knew that they thought we were going to screen to get me the ball,” Wallin said. “But I faked it with my screen like I was going to go over and my teammates (including the pass from freshman Hannah Aguado) trusted me and I was calm and shot it and it was big for us.”

Yorkville Christian’s boys program won its first regional in 2019 in its third IHSA season. The girls have now done it in four.

“It’s huge for our program and I’m so excited for sectionals,” Bulson said. “Our main goal was to win regionals and go from there and I truly think we have something special.”

Serena (23-8) was looking for a different result than the 47-43 loss it had at Yorkville Christian 16 days earlier

“They had a great year,” Jobst said of his squad. “They were conference champs and they battled here for a regional championship. We probably exceeded people’s expectations a little because we lost a lot last year.”

Grace Allgood (3 points) and Bulson (17 points) have been along from day one in the program for the Mustangs as fourth-year players.

Ultimately, it was Bulson’s drives, combined with Wallin scoring 10 of her 16 points the second half, that got it done offensively for the Mustangs.

“My teammates are big for all of this,” Bulson said. “I would not have been able to drive with the pick snd the rolls, that’s mainly on them. They help me get to the rim. They know what I am going to do so they do it for me.”

After one of Bulson’s drives extended Yorkville Christian’s lead to 33-20 midway through the third, she then took a charge a minute later.

“Making that defensive play, that was a moment for me that got everybody energized,” she said. “At first when they kept calling the calls on me, it was a little discouraging, but I knew I could do it to them. I had to get them back for it.”

Beating a quality program while making school history is big stuff for the Mustangs.

“Serena is a really good team and no matter what they got, they’re scrappy and they’re well coached,” Schutt said. “They’re always tough. We were fortunate to get by them twice this year, but last year they kicked our tail, but they’re a very good team.”