Jayden Riley scores 39 for Yorkville Christian, one of the state's best teams in Class 1A
Yorkville Christian junior Jayden Riley and coach Aaron Sovern both stress that Riley is a point guard.
That’s certainly what college coaches want to hear about a 6-2 high school player and Riley handles the ball well, sees the floor and passes naturally.
But he’s a fantastic scorer, one of the best in the area. And the area is starved for big-time scorers. Riley had 23 points in the first half and finished with a season high 39 points in the Mustangs’ 90-61 win against Hinckley-Big Rock in the first round of the Plano Christmas Classic on Monday.
“I’m definitely more of a pass first guy,” Riley said “I’m working on my scoring. I think I’m one of the best players at running an offense but I’m getting a hang of scoring.”
Riley was in Oswego’s starting lineup as a freshman and transferred to Yorkville Christian (9-3) before last season. He loves the Mustangs’ fast paced offense.
“Nobody in the state plays like this,” Riley said. “Especially as a point guard it is fun to just be running. Earlier this year we were down 20 in the fourth quarter and came back and won. The other team gets gassed and we are well conditioned.”
Yorkville Christian led 38-31 at halftime. The Mustangs took control in the third quarter and ran away with the game in the fourth quarter.
“[Riley] would rather get 10 assists than 20 points but he has to score for us,” Sovern said. “That opens things up for us. Teams look at his raw numbers and gameplan for him. He just controls the game. He’s a very cerebral point guard.”
Riley and 6-6 Noah Aguado, the tallest player in the program’s short but successful history, have developed chemistry. And the Mustangs have several excellent shooters, including senior Brady Sovern.
“We knew we had a little more depth than they did,” Sovern said. “The type of tempo we would like to play will tire teams out by the beginning of the fourth quarter and that showed right there. They had turnovers they didn’t have earlier.”
Yorkville Christian is the No. 6 seed at Plano, but looked like a team capable of winning the tournament. The other top contenders are Kaneland and Northridge Prep. But the Mustangs have even bigger things in mind than holiday tournaments this season.
“We have the capabilty [to win state],” Sovern said. “When we are playing the way we are supposed to play we are as good as anybody. We have a killer schedule the second half of the year so that is going to be tough. But I like our chances.”