Jayce Schmitt asked himself an important question Friday night.

“I was thinking before we got here, why not go off?” Schmitt said.

Calm and collected as he and his Johnsburg teammates took the floor for the Class 2A Mendota Sectional final against Rockford Lutheran, the 6-foot-3 senior guard immediately caught fire from the 3-point line. Drilling four first-half triples, Schmitt finished with 22 points as the Skyhawks downed the Crusaders 68-50 to claim the sectional crown.

“It’s really nice, especially with everyone here,” said Schmitt, who added five rebounds and five assists. “I love our community. They come out to all of the games and we have a fan bus and everything.”

It’s the first sectional boys basketball championship since 2003 for the Skyhawks (24-11), who celebrated with their classmates and coaches on the floor after securing their victory. Traveling just over 100 miles from Johnsburg to Mendota, the Skyhawk faithful grew louder as the team neared its sectional win.

“It’s a great community,” said Johnsburg coach Mike Toussaint, who shared several hugs with supporters after the game. “We run our Lil’ Dribblers program, so we have a lot of little kids who look up to these guys. Johnsburg’s a great community and they travel really well.”

Facing Lutheran (19-16) for the second time this season, Johnsburg broke off a 9-2 run to start the game, with Schmitt burying a pair of 3-point shots. As they’ve done all season, the Skyhawks soared ahead through their dribble penetration and shooting. A rare four-point play by Ashton Stern helped Johnsburg hold a 19-13 first-quarter lead.

“We’ve got the shooters,” said senior guard Jarrel Albea, who totaled eight points, four assists and three rebounds. “We want to be aggressive and stay aggressive throughout the whole game. We know a lot of teams like to collapse on us and that’s a bad choice. We want to attack the paint, collapse the defense and find the open guy.”

Playing through 6-foot-1 senior Mason Keller on the interior, the Crusaders found some success scoring the ball inside. But while the Skyhawks converted from downtown, Lutheran missed all of its first-half three attempts. Those struggles continued during the second half and by the final buzzer, Lutheran hadn’t made a single three.

“We knew they were a really physical team,” said Johnsburg junior guard Trey Toussaint, who had nine points and two assists. “We knew they had guys who could shoot the ball, so we prepared for them. ... Our goals were to stay out on the 3-pointers. We didn’t want them getting any 3s. We wanted no 3s, and I guess we got our goal.”

Carrying a 31-23 lead into the third quarter, Johnsburg went on a 9-2 run once again, this time with Toussaint spearheading the charge. The junior finished a pair of layups in between knocking down a triple as the Skyhawks sped past the Crusaders, going up by as many as 19.

Three-point shooting wasn’t the only difference maker for Johnsburg. The Skyhawks once again dominated on the glass, creating second chances the same way they did during Wednesday’s semifinal victory against Aurora Christian. Four Johnsburg players had at least five rebounds. Josh Kaunas (6-6) and Danny Loud (6-7) each had seven.

“They work hard, they love each other and they just go get it,” said Mike Toussaint, whose team out-rebounded Lutheran 31-17.

Kaunas scored nine points and Loud chipped in five off the bench for the Skyhawks, who led 53-34 entering the fourth quarter. While the Crusaders kept pace with continued post-ups and finishes around the rim, Lutheran was unable to overcome its perimeter shooting woes.

Keller finished with 17 points and junior guard Richard Anderson had 16 points for the Crusaders. The two combined for nine rebounds and made 15 field goals in the game.

Stern, who drilled three 3-pointers, scored 13 points and grabbed six rebounds. The Skyhawks will face Peoria Manual in the Sterling Supersectional at 7 p.m. Monday.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Trey Toussaint said. “We had goals coming into the season and we started off slow, but we knew we could get back on track and get things going. ... Our goal was to get out to a fast start. We knew we had to start fast if we wanted to close this out.”