McHenry can’t overcome Jaxson Davis, Javerion Banks in regional final loss to Warren

McHENRY – Wherever Warren sophomore sensation Jaxson Davis goes on the basketball court, he draws a crowd.

So when things get overly crowded, it’s nice to have a pressure-release player to absorb some of the offense for the Blue Devils.

That’s what senior Javerion Banks did Friday night. He scored nine crucial fourth-quarter points and combined with Davis’s 23-point performance and a solid defensive effort, Warren advanced to the Waukegan Sectional by virtue of its 58-45 triumph over McHenry in the McHenry Regional title game.

Warren (23-10) will take on DeKalb, a 57-45 winner over Hononegah in the Harlem title game.

Banks had gone scoreless through the game’s first three quarters, but that didn’t affect the athletic 6-1 guard. In the final period, Banks scored eight of his team’s first 10 points that helped keep McHenry at arm’s length.

“My shot wasn’t falling early so I focused on my defense and changed my role,” Banks said. “We are a defense-first team. We play like this in practice. We have three guards - Jaxson, me, and Braylon (Walker) - and we can hoop. If one guy’s not having a good night, the rest of us step up.”

Step up is exactly what the Blue Devils did. After jumping to a 17-7 lead, McHenry (26-7) went on an 11-0 run sparked by five points each from Adam Anwar (15 points) and Connor McLean (12 points). But Warren responded with a 10-point surge of its own, nine of which came from Davis.

“(McHenry) was ready for us, that was apparent. They’re a good team. They won 26 games,” Warren coach Zack Ryan said. “I thought we defended well, we didn’t have the greatest offensive night, we had a few too many turnovers for my liking, but our team just hustles. Javarion has been hurt and we just got him back about a month ago but he provides us that athleticism and energy and some really exciting plays.”

McHenry, despite shooting just 14 of 38 (37%) from the field, was as close as 37-30 after Anwar hit a short jumper with 1:13 left in the third period. However, Warren responded with a 12-5 surge (six points by Banks) to increase the lead to 49-35 with 4:12 to play. The Warriors never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

“That No. 1 (Davis), he’s pretty good, huh?” Card joked. “Every time we made a run at them, he stopped us. He hit a couple of back-to-back 3s and just controls the game. He plays downhill and he’s difficult to defend.”

Moments after celebrating with his team by taking down the net, Ryan turned his attention to the immediate future.

“We talk about getting better every day, and these kids have worked to do that.” he said. “We talked about making it to our next practice. We had our 54th practice yesterday and tomorrow we have our 55th. We are just trying to live in the moment.’

Dylan Hurckes added 11 points for the Warriors, who concluded a season that saw a co-Fox Valley Conference championship and a second straight regional finals appearance.

“Like all teams, we battled injuries and sickness, but these kids gave me everything they had,” Card said. “They played out of position most of the year, they went 8-3 without Adam (who missed games due to a wrist injury) and this group of seniors won 56 games, won a conference championship this year, and made two straight regional finals.

“It’s a great group.”