Fenton 60, Wauconda 54

If you woke him up in the dead of night and flung him from his bed out onto a basketball court, Damian Sieradzki would probably still light it up.

That's just about what the Fenton senior did in a Class 3A regional semifinal Wednesday.

"Those were some cold-blooded shots that Damian took, weren't they?" asked Fenton coach Dennis Cromer.

After fighting foul trouble and scoring 9 points through 3½ quarters of play, Sieradzki scored 9 points like a lightning strike, including a pair of late 3-pointers from the corner that proved fatal to Wauconda's season in Bensenville.

"When the team needs me, I need to step up," Sieradzki said. "When I'm sitting on the bench watching my team come back without me, it just gets me more pumped up."

The seventh-seeded Bison (13-14) won 60-54 over the 10th-seeded Bulldogs (11-17) and will play second-seeded Grayslake Central (21-6) on Friday for a regional title.

"I told our kids that out of the 16 minutes of the second half, we played phenomenal for 15 minutes and 20 seconds," said Wauconda coach Rich Wolf. "We had two lapses where (Sieradzki) got too good a look at the basket."

Fenton led 14-8 after a quarter of play and 30-22 at halftime. Wauconda guard Connor Dimick scored all 9 of his points and Bulldogs post-player Eric Grozavescu netted 7 points before halftime.

Fenton's Gozie Umeadi dominated play in the first half, scoring 16 of his 17 points and pulling down 8 of his game-high 13 rebounds. The Bulldogs slowed Umeadi in the second half and earned a 17-9 scoring edge in the third quarter to tie the game 39-39 heading to the fourth.

"First, we needed somebody to guard him," Wolf said. "We had to get a couple of defensive stops and some good offensive possessions. We were patient and got the ball down low, which is what we wanted to do."

Grozavescu scored 12 second-half points in the paint to finish with 19, and Brad Wisniewski battled inside in scoring 6 of his 10 points in the third quarter.

Wauconda grabbed its first lead of the game at 43-41 in the fourth quarter on a pair of Wisniewski free throws, and the game was tied at 46-46 when Sieradzki's 9-2 run put Fenton up 55-48.

Emeka Umeadi hit a big free throw down the stretch, and Corey Tangen calmly went 4 of 4 from the free-throw line to ice the game.

"I just got lucky enough to get the ball and knock them down," Tangen said.

"All we've played is close games, all year," Cromer said. "I think we have a certain comfort level in close games, and if losing a few close ones along the way helped us get a win tonight, I suppose that's been worth it."

Wauconda will graduate eight seniors from this year's squad, in Grozavescu, Wisniewski, Jessie Rodriguez, Keith Palmer, Louie Enriquez, Scott Wahl, Matt Machon and Jose Cruz.

"This is a tremendous group. We've got a large number of seniors, and I'm extremely proud that these kids stayed with our program for four years," Wolf said.

"Regardless of how much (playing) time they were going to get as juniors or seniors, they wanted to stick with it. That says something about those kids."

Ridgewood 56, Elmwood Park 51: At Grayslake North, it was a close game between the Metro Suburban Conference rivals.

Damian Tabor scored 23 points to lead No. 5 Ridgewood, which advanced to Friday night's Class 3A regional final against No. 4 Senn.

No. 12 Elmwood Park received 13 points from Anthony LaBarbera and 12 apiece from George Lako and John Mooi.

Buffalo Grove 53, Meadows 51: Rolling Meadows, as coach Kevin Katovich observed, "left it all on the court," Tuesday night.

Buffalo Grove, on the other hand, had 2 free throws by Kevin Mulligan and one by Mike Ricciardi left in the tank in the final 34.5 seconds for the difference in the Bison's 53-51 Class 4A regional semifinal win at Palatine.

The Bison (20-8), the Barrington sectional's No. 5 seed, move into Friday's title game against upstart Lake Zurich, the 14th seed.

But Ricciardi seemed to have the response baskets every time Rolling Meadows went ahead or tied the game. Mulligan, a sophomore, giving away 5 inches, who knows how many pounds and two years of experience, clamped down on Meadows' standout point guard Kyle Gaedele in the second half. He limited the 6-foot-3 senior to no field goals, forced him into a key missed 3-pointer late that would've given Meadows (13-15) the lead as well as a charging foul on a late drive that also would've swung the momentum.

"He's giving away a lot," said BG coach Ryan O'Connor of Mulligan in the matchup against Gaedele. But, O'Connor added, Mulligan makes up for it with heart.

"Mully did a great job," said Ricciardi, who hit a key free throw with :10 left for the final cushion and played tight defense with his teammates in the final seconds as Meadows got off a decent but hurried look at a 3 that might've won it but dropped well short at the horn.

In addition to his late free throw though, during a spell that Ricciardi called "the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever encountered in my life," he also had the key baskets that kept Meadows from grabbing the momentum.

When Ben Sabal scored to put Meadows ahead, finally, in the third quarter, after trailing 24-12 in the second, Ricciardi answered within seconds to get the lead back. He extended the lead on the next possession off a feed from Brian DeSimone. And when two Richie Kemph baskets tied it midway through the fourth, Ricciardi again wasted no time scoring after each one to give BG the lead back. He paced the Bison with 15.

"We expected nothing less," O'Connor said of the rugged test for his 5th-ranked Bison from the 12th-ranked Mustangs. "We knew they'd come out and compete."

"I'm just extremely proud of this group," said Meadows Katovich. "They played hard. BG's a great team."

-- Howard Schlossberg

Hersey 63, Wheeling 55: The clock was ticking for Luke Fabrizius, Michael Mueller, Griffin Dwyer and the rest of the Hersey seniors.

The Huskies had trailed the host Wildcats at the Class 4A Wheeling regional for most of the semifinal Wednesday, at times by double digits, and by 5 points midway through the fourth quarter.

"We were down," said Fabrizius, "and Griffin, Mike, and rest of the seniors looked at each other and basically said, 'this isn't the way we want it to end.'"

It didn't, thanks to some aggressive defense and hot shooting down the stretch.

The No. 7 Huskies (15-12) went on a 12-point run late in the game and when the 6-foot-9 Fabrizius let out a yell after punctuating the rally with a dunk with a minute to play, they were on their way to a 63-55 victory.

Mueller scored 12 of his game-high 18 points in the fourth-quarter and Dwyer (17 points) hit a clutch 3 to put Hersey in Friday's 7:30 p.m. regional final against No. 2 New Trier (19-7).

"The key was to keep up our intensity and keep attacking the basket," said Mueller. "We had to stay in the game and keep fighting any way we could. We knew our cold streak would end if we kept going to the basket."

Chris McClellan led No. 10 Wheeling (13-13) with 14 points.

"We kind of lost our composure at the end," said the senior guard. "We didn't run our offense, and we were forcing our shots. They hit their shots, so you have to tip your hat to them."

Wheeling's biggest lead was 11 with three minutes left in the third but Hersey kept chipping away and Dwyer's long 3 with 3:03 left tied the game at 50-50.

Then Kyle Mengarelli (11 points) hit a 3, Mueller had 2 free throws, Fabrizius (11 points) got his dunk and just like that Hersey was up 57-50.

A 3 by McClellan cut the lead to 4 but free throws by Dwyer, Mueller and Fabrizius in the closing seconds helped Hersey prevail.

James Kurtz scored 11 points for Wheeling and senior Alex Chery had a monster game with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks.

"This was a change of pace for us," said Fabrizius. "We usually get the lead in games then struggle late. But we kept attacking the basket, and Mike (Mueller) was huge for us in the fourth quarter. He set the tone."

"Mueller was outstanding," echoed Hersey coach Steve Messer," and what I was most impressed with was that for the first time all year, he got mad when I took him out of the game. He had his game face on tonight."

-- Bill Esbrook