Boys Basketball
The Rant has got to give credit to The Burg for another very good boys basketball season, but a sectional title wasn’t in the cards this year.
VERNON HILLS – Johnsburg boys basketball team knows exactly what it must bring to the IHSA Class 3A Vernon Hills Sectional championship game against St. Viator.
HAMPSHIRE – The intensity, the rapid-fire scoring and the general quick play stunned Marian Central’s boys basketball team Tuesday.
VERNON HILLS – The good part for Chicago Gordon Tech was it had hacked Johnsburg’s once-comfortable lead to six points with 2:17 remaining.
After a big night of playoff hoops, The Burg’s boys basketball team is the only team left playin’ for a state title.
VERNON HILLS – The good part for Gordon Tech was it had hacked Johnsburg’s once-comfortable lead to six points with 2:17 remaining.
Marian Central boys basketball coach Curtis Price sees no reason his team can’t hang around for a while in the IHSA Class 3A postseason.
Johnsburg might have the most experienced boys basketball team in the state.
CRYSTAL LAKE – Host Crystal Lake South stayed close throughout its IHSA Class 4A Regional title game, but top-seeded Jefferson pulled away late for a 57-44 boys basketball victory Friday.
WOODSTOCK – The year already was ingrained in the heads of Marian Central’s players, but Hurricanes coach Curtis Price drove the point home one more time before they left school.
JOHNSBURG – When Johnsburg needed to keep its composure in a tight fourth quarter against Lakes in the IHSA Class 3A Johnsburg Regional final Friday, not a single player hid from the late-game pressure.
After Friday night’s hoops action we are down to two local teams still alive in the post season.
MAPLE PARK – Hampshire tried everything it could to keep Kaneland center Dave Dudzinski from getting the ball in his hands with 11.3 seconds remaining.
JOHNSBURG – Teams facing Johnsburg must pick their poison when defending the Skyhawks’ offense.
WOODSTOCK – In the previous two games between Prairie Ridge’s and Crystal Lake Central’s boys basketball teams this season, Central emerged with the victory.
WOODSTOCK – Little went wrong for Marian Central’s boys basketball team Tuesday night.
CRYSTAL LAKE – Huntley’s players felt like the butt of some cruel joke as guard Tyler Brunschon drained two three-pointers in the final 12 seconds.
BARRINGTON – Dundee-Crown’s boys basketball team was held to single-digit scoring in the second and third quarters, and Barrington rolled to a 52-39 victory Tuesday in the semifinals of the IHSA Class 4A Barrington Regional.
CRYSTAL LAKE – Crystal Lake South and McHenry delivered one of the more dramatic and unconventional finishes of the boys basketball season.
CRYSTAL LAKE– With the season on the line and his team trailing by two points in overtime, Huntley senior Mason Kaniewski hit the game-winning three-pointer with 23 seconds left, giving the Red Raiders a thrilling 51-50 win against Jacobs on Monday.
There were not many people out there who thought that Johnsburg’s girls basketball team would be playing for a state title more than The Rant.
Athlete of the Week
ALGONQUIN – The gym was electric Friday night as the Jacobs boys basketball team picked up its fifth win in a row, a 46-42 Fox Valley Conference Valley Division victory against Huntley.
WOODSTOCK – The Prairie Ridge boys basketball team coasted to a 59-33 postseason tuneup win against Woodstock North on Friday, in Fox Valley Conference Fox Division action.
CRYSTAL LAKE – Crystal Lake South’s performance left little room for criticism.
The Burg’s girls basketball team won its third straight sectional title on Thursday in a route of Regina Dominican, and if they beat Oswego on Monda,y they punch their ticket to the state tournament.
POPLAR GROVE – Harvard’s boys basketball team thought it would hang with Genoa-Kingston and make things as difficult as possible at the end, just as it had in most games since January.
Things are heatin’ up for The Burg and the Shire’s girls basketball teams. Each of them are one win away from sectional titles, and a long awaited meetin’ between the two.
WOODSTOCK – Johnsburg guard Mike Dixon unleashed all his pent-up energy from missing four games with a strained oblique on Marian Central.
POPLAR GROVE – After playing its fourth game of the season against North Boone in an IHSA Class 2A North Boone Regional on Tuesday, Harvard’s boys basketball team is looking forward to a new challenge.
HAMPSHIRE – It’s tough for Hampshire sharpshooter Justin Bieber to predict when he’s about to have a big game.
The Rant would like to congratulate all of our local basketball division winners after division play ended Friday night.
CARPENTERSVILLE – The Jacobs boys basketball team didn’t falter in the face of the Dundee-Crown student section’s “Pink Out” on Friday night.
RICHMOND – Down by four points against Harvard with less than 2:30 left in the fourth quarter Friday, Richmond-Burton’s boys basketball team responded like a champion.
CRYSTAL LAKE – With Johnsburg’s floor leader and leading scorer senior guard Mike Dixon out for the second consecutive game with a hip pointer, coach Luke Ravlin called on junior Mike Dombrowski to step in and run the floor for the Skyhawks.
CRYSTAL LAKE – As the only senior on Crystal Lake South’s boys basketball team, Alex Macaulay knew it wouldn’t do for the Gators to lose on senior night.
WOODSTOCK – Prairie Ridge held Woodstock to single-digit scoring in three of the four quarters of the Wolves’ 57-34 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division boys basketball victory against Woodstock on Friday.
CARY – Freshman Olivia Jakubicek knew what to do when she got her hands on the biggest rebound of the game Thursday.
GRAYSLAKE – Woodstock’s Jordan Turner scored 14 points Wednesday, but the Blue Streaks lost to Grayslake Central, 77-34, in Fox Valley Conference Fox Division boys basketball action.
The Rant wants to know which of the boys hoops teams in the FVC Valley Division really wants to win the darn thing?
LIBERTYVILLE – The Jacobs boys basketball team used its momentum from Friday’s win against Crystal Lake South to defeat Libertyville, 72-66, in overtime on Saturday.
HUNTLEY – Dundee-Crown’s boys basketball team scripted Friday’s final play against Huntley a little differently, but the Chargers gladly will take the result and the win.
JOHNSBURG – C.J. Fiedorowicz has played quite a few games in Johnsburg’s gymnasium and could not remember it being louder.
GRAYSLAKE – Crystal Lake Central hung tough all night, but a slow start to the second half ultimately cost the Tigers in a 71-60 Fox Valley Conference Fox Division loss to Grayslake North on Friday.
RICHMOND – Richmond-Burton’s boys basketball team held Marengo to 13 first-half points Friday in another dominating defensive performance, and the Rockets cruised to a 49-33 Big Northern Conference East Division victory.
ALGONQUIN – A 10-game losing streak couldn’t scuttle the confidence of the Jacobs boys basketball team.
As time was winding down in the third quarter against Grayslake Central, Johnsburg's C.J. Fiedorowicz tossed in a 3-pointer from three-quarter court.
The Rant was more than a little psyched that there were several basketball games this weekend with a championship flavor.
Johnsburg and Marian Central have been the area’s top boys basketball teams this season, so it’s no surprise they both landed No. 1 seeds in their respective regionals.
PECATONICA – The Alden-Hebron girls basketball team’s season came to an end Wednesday with a 50-29 loss to the Keith School in the IHSA Class 1A Pecatonica Regional semifinals.
