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."