Fox Valley wrap: Whip-Purs fall in regional final
POPLAR GROVE -- Hampshire gave a valiant effort, cutting a 21-point deficit to 12 in the final period, but it was too little, too late for the Whip-Purs.
Winnebago won the Class 2A North Boone boys basketball regional with a 49-37 victory Friday night.
The Whip-Purs had no answer for Heath Hoffman, who finished with 23 points --including 11 in the third quarter -- and 8 rebounds.
T.J. Burzak with 15 points and Will Bush with 10 were the only consistent offensive threats for the Whip-Purs.
Hampshire finished the season 14-13.
The big story, though, was the Indians' domination of the backboards. Winnebago held a 21-5 rebounding advantage at halftime and stretched it to 36-22 for the game.
"The one thing we wanted to concentrate on was boards, and we gave up 8 offensive rebounds," said Hampshire coach Bob Barnett. "They had more offensive boards than we had boards in the first half. That's the issue I had with it."
Besides Hoffman's 8, 6-foot-5 Bruce Polkowski grabbed 8 rebounds and even point guard Steve Mulrooney chipped in with 6.
The Indians weren't only strong inside. They led just 6-4 in the first quarter, but a flurry of 3-pointers, 2 by Charles Cross, 1 by Mulrooney, and 1 by Hoffman, quickly made it 18-6, and Hampshire never recovered.
Hampshire had a scouting report on Hoffman, having lost to Winnebago twice during the regular season, but it still couldn't stop his drives to the basket.
"We didn't slide people over to try to take that charge," said Barnett. "We were supposed to double when he went to the right to take away that spin, but sometimes young kids, when they're struggling offensively, they lose focus."
Ryan Burke added 4 points off the bench for Hampshire.
Winnebago took its biggest lead at 41-20 midway through the third quarter. With Bush leading the way the Whips tried to come back. They outscored Winnebago 13-5 in the fourth quarter but ran out of time.
Boys basketball
Grayslake Central 43, Huntley 31:ŒHuntley was given a gift Tuesday night: a Prairie Ridge victory over Grayslake Central, which left the Rams and the Red Raiders tied for the Fox Division lead with one game remaining.
Central and Huntley met in a battle for outright supremacy Friday night, a chance for each team to set the record straight as to who would be called champions of the Fox Division of the Fox Valley Conference.
Huntley, playing on its home floor, couldn't take advantage of the situation.
Central's defense knocked the ball away twice for layups and had Huntley taking shots it normally doesn't take in establishing a 5-point lead with under 4 minutes remaining.
Soon thereafter, Grayslake sensed victory after Jordan Neukirch's pass slipped underneath the hands of Mike Gonzaga, who was open on the right wing.
Gonzaga's expression changed from determination to disappointment as the ball slipped under his hands, a chance to win the Fox Division slipping away with it.
"We couldn't connect on any pass, and our shots weren't falling," said Huntley's Dan Regan.
Credit Grayslake's defense, which forced Huntley into 11 second-half turnovers and 33 percent shooting from the field, factors that cinched the Fox Division championship in a 43-31 victory at Huntley
The victory ended a nine-year championship drought for the Rams.
"The whole day at school I was telling people this is the most nervous I've ever been for a game," Rams forward Andrew Sipes said.
Tuesday's loss to Prairie Ridge had no effect on Grayslake Central (20-6, 8-2), which bolstered its defense after Huntley (17-9, 7-3) cut the deficit to a single point before halftime on Jordan Neukirch's bucket with 1:14 left in the second quarter.
Huntley's shooting went cold in the second half, however.
"We picked a bad night to go cold, 1 of 11 from three-point (range)," Huntley coach Marty Manning said. "When we hit a couple more, it's a different game.
After Gonzaga tipped in his own miss early in the fourth to trim deficit to 3 points, the Rams defense came to life again. Sipes (10 points) stole the ball and extended the lead to 5 on a layup.
After Neukirch's pass to Gonzaga fell short, the Raiders were forced to send Central to the free throw line the rest of the quarter and the chances of coming back were diminished.
"We couldn't beat this team last year," Regan said. "But last year we tied for first, so this year it stings a little more."
-- Steve Nichols
Cary-Grove 47, Woodstock 35: Mark Tometich (22 points) led the Trojans (17-10, 8-2) past Woodstock (10-17, 3-7) for a Fox Valley (Valley) Conference victory. The Blue Streaks' Dean Griffith and Derek Brown each contributed 6 points.
McHenry 56, Crystal Lake South 53, OT: The Warriors (7-19, 1-9) avoided being swept in Fox Valley (Valley) Conference play this season by beating CL South in the regular-season finale for both teams. McHenry was led by Jake Banwart, who posted 14 points, while Zach Borter and Chris Madson added 8 apiece.
The Gators' Steven Rogers collected 20 points but CL South (14-13, 3-7) still fell in overtime when McHenry outscored the Gators 9-6.
Prairie Ridge 39, Johnsburg 36: In Fox Valley Fox play, the Wolves (6-22, 4-6) pulled out a close one thanks to Mike Ungari, who put 16 points on the board. Chad Ljunggren also collected 11 points.
Boys swimming
State meet:ŒCary-Grove junior Brent Curtis was sure he had missed the qualifying cut after finishing the 100 free in 47.77 seconds, and he immediately tried to focus on his three remaining races at the preliminaries of this year's state swim meet in Evanston.
Minutes later, he found out he had finished 12th to qualify for the first time in his career.
"Once I finished swimming my race, I looked up at the scoreboard and I thought that (my time) wasn't going to be fast enough to score," Curtis said. "So at first I was disappointed, so I went straight to the warm-down pool.
"I was getting mentally prepared for my next race and I was in the middle of my warm-down when my friend came over and told me that I made it. I was in disbelief. It was a very pleasant surprise."
Curtis also finished 15th in the 100 breaststroke.
Teammate Michael Kinross recorded 21st in the 100 butterfly at 53.05 and 39th in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.11, while the Cary-Grove relay teams earned 23rd and 28th in the 200 medley relay and 200 free relay, respectively.
In the 200 medley, Ed Griswold, Kinross, Curtis and Ryan Kearney combined for a 1:40.78. Curtis, Kinross, Kearney and Christian Weber recorded a 1:29.60 in the 200 free relay.
Also representing the Fox Valley Conference, junior Sean Kelly of the Dundee-Crown/Jacobs coop earned respectable finishes in the 100 backstroke (55.86) and the 200 IM (2:03.47). Overall, Kelly finished 33rd and 43rd respectively.
Last year the Fremd boys swimming team registered one point in the state swim meet. This year the Vikings are guaranteed to top that total.
After advancing its entire team from the Barrington sectional, Fremd used the state preliminaries to show just how much it has improved. The Vikings qualified swimmers into three consolation final events to be held today at Evanston high school.
Junior Sam Childs earned ninth place in the 100 free and took 12th in the 200 free to earn spots in both consolation finals. Junior teammate Varun Shivakumar
will join Childs after finishing ninth in the 100 back.
"From last year scoring only one point at state, now we have three finalists," said Shivakumar, who took 12th in the 100 back last year. "So we're happy. It's a big improvement. Next year is going to be even better."
Childs, who only started swimming the 200 at the conference tournament, said he was surprised to qualify in the event. He credited his teammates for pushing him to go faster.
"I had a lot of team support," he said. "With everyone counting on you, (I felt an obligation to swim faster). We have a pretty strong team that's holding together pretty well."
Second-year Fremd coach Nicole LaBeau was very pleased with the way her team performed and said she sees it as another step towards their eventual goal of
becoming an annual state contender.
"I think it's the second step but I think it's the first visible step," she said. "Last year we had a lot of building, a lot of coming together. This year we still did a lot of that as we continue building up the ranks, not just the numbers but the dreams of getting people to realize that you can do this no matter what you come in starting as."
-- Joe Esse