IHSA releases pairings, ECC to host 4A super

It looks like the old days again -- well, sort of.

With the advent of four-class basketball in Illinois, some regional tournaments will look similar to those of yesteryear, with teams from the same conference and in close proximity to each other making up the field.

Under the four-class system, if any of the team in a sectional complex are outside the Chicago 7-county area, the regionals were preassigned. And that's the case with the bulk of the Class 3A and 4A girls teams in the area, who learned their postseason pairings on Friday when the IHSA released them.

Class 4A: All the area's Class 4A teams except Bartlett feed into a supersectional that will be hosted by Larkin at the Elgin Community College Events Center.

Rockton Hononegah and Mundelein are the sectional hosts.

Larkin will also host a regional that will open on Feb. 11 with games between No. 4 seed Larkin and No. 5 Streamwood and then No. 3 South Elgin taking on No. 6 Elgin. The Larkin-Streamwood winner plays No. 1 St. Charles North and the South Elgin-Elgin winner takes on St. Charles East with those winners playing on Valentine's Day for the regional title.

The Larkin regional winner will meet the Rockford Jefferson regional winner in the Hononegah semis. Jacobs is the top seed at Jefferson and Rockford Auburn is No. 2.

The other sectional semi at Jefferson pits regional winners from Guilford and Prairie Ridge against each other. Hononegah is the top seed at Guilford and Machesney Park Harlem No. 2 while Cary-Grove is the No. 1 seed at PR. Crystal Lake South is No. 2 and opens regional play against No. 3 Dundee-Crown.

Bartlett is the lone area Class 4A team not a part of the ECC supersectional field. The Hawks, who host a regional, are the No. 15 seed in the Lake Park sectional. They play No. 18 Morton on Feb. 11 with the winner facing No. 2 Schaumburg the next night.

Class 3A: If seeds hold, Huntley and Burlington Central will meet for the Kaneland regional title. The Red Raiders are the No. 1 seed at Kaneland and BC No. 2. Huntley will face the winner of the Sycamore-Aurora Central play-in game in the Feb. 13 semifinals while the Rockets take on No. 3 Kaneland. The winners meet on Valentine's Day for the title and the right to play the Rock Falls regional winner in the Rochelle sectional semifinals. Rock Falls is the No. 1 seed at its own regional and Freeport No. 2.

On the other side of the bracket, Rosary is the No. 1 seed at the Yorkville regional and Rockford Lutheran the top seed at the Marengo regional.

The Rochelle sectional winner advances to the NIU supersectional to play the LaSalle-Peru sectional champ. Peoria Richwoods and Rock Island Alleman are the top teams in the L-P sectional.