Christ the King soars past Oswego, eyes a run to Champaign in Class 2A

Christ the King senior Aaron McClure sailed through the air for a smooth, powerful slam dunk to open the Gladiators’ 62-50 victory against visiting Oswego on Thursday.

He closed the game with more acrobatics. The strong 6-6 forward threw down dunks for Christ the King’s last four baskets. McClure says he probably has more than 50 slams this season.

“When I get a dunk that gets the whole team going and brings the energy up,” McClure said, “everyone wants to play defense and get stops so we can keep the momentum going.”

McClure led Christ the King (21-9) with 21 points and six dunks. It was a statement win for the Class 2A private school on the West Side, taking down a Class 4A school to wrap up the regular season.

McClure hopes to throw down one of his soaring dunks three weeks from now in Champaign.

“I want to make coach Troy Caldwell proud,” McClure said. “I look at him as a father, and I really appreciate him. I want to leave him and this school with something big: the 2A state championship.”

Gladiators senior Darien Green is one of the city’s best guards. He has scored more than 1,000 points in his four-year varsity career at Christ the King and had 14 against Oswego.

“[Green] is phenomenal,” Caldwell said. “He’s one of the best players that has ever come through this school, and he’s a leader. The sky is the limit for him, and he’s a pleasure to coach.”

Green hasn’t received any headlines over the years at Christ the King, but several colleges have noticed him. He’s considering Roosevelt, Dominican and Jackson State among others. That decision will wait until after the season. Right now the 6-3 guard is focused on the state playoffs.

“I’ll get my attention when we go downstate,” Green said. “I really think we will make it this year. Last year, we played mainly small schools, and we got too comfortable. Now we are battle-tested. We played so many bigger schools and learned from that.’’

Senior guard Aramis Currin added 16 points for the Gladiators, who’ve beaten Waukegan, Riverside-Brookfield and Wheaton Academy. They lost by 20 to St. Ignatius but were competitive in a six-point loss to Fenwick and a seven-point loss to Marian Catholic.

“We had a gauntlet of a schedule,” Caldwell said. “We’ve played a ranked team in every class to get us ready for state. We had some growing pains early as we were building our identity in the first half of the season. But we’re on an eight-game winning streak [and] playing our best basketball at the right time.”

Freshman Ethan Vahl led Oswego (11-19) with 28 points. The talented point guard is one of the state’s most promising players.

“He’s a special player,” Panthers coach Nick Oraham said. “He has unreal vision, and the guys are beginning to understand and see that a little bit more off the ball. He’s bought in, and it’s going to be exciting to see how he performs over the next three years.”