Regional titles on line for four Fox Valley area teams

The South Elgin boys basketball team hopes to accomplish something big by going small.

The Storm seek the third-year program's first regional championship when they take on Upstate Eight Conference rival St. Charles North in tonight's Class 4A DeKalb regional title game at 7:30 p.m.

No. 1 St. Charles North (20-8) is seeking its second regional championship. The North Stars won a Class AA regional in 2005.

The North Stars were in first place in the UEC until the Storm traveled to St. Charles on Feb. 20 and knocked them off 70-64.

No. 2 South Elgin (19-8) will take the court without 6-foot-9 Sacramento State-bound center Dani Lopez. On Thursday Storm coach Chaz Taft said Lopez is likely finished for the season due to a foot ligament tear suffered during warmups before a nonconference win against Libertyville on Feb. 14, when he landed awkwardly on a teammate's foot.

Lopez played with the injury against Libertyville and contributed 6 points but has been sidelined since. South Elgin has won 3 games and lost 2 in his absence. Taft said the task of making up for Lopez's 6.8 rebounds per game will fall to seniors Josh Smith, Jeffrey Lewis and Erik Stade.

As one door closed another opened. In the same week Lopez hurt his foot, South Elgin guard Kyle Osborne (6-1) returned to the lineup for the first time since he fractured his leg in the season opener.

Taft worked Osborne back into the rotation in the last three weeks of the regular season, and the senior delivered a big game Wednesday night in a 63-61 semifinal victory over host DeKalb. Osborne connected on six 3-pointers, including a clutch 3-pointer in the final minute that gave South Elgin the lead.

"Kyle has been a consistent shooter from the outside and gives us a little more depth at the guard position," Taft said. "Having him in the lineup gives us a different dimension because all five guys can handle the ball."

The North Stars are led by senior point guard Nick Neari (6-foot-3). He scored 30 points on 11-of-17 shooting, dished 7 assists and grabbed 5 rebounds in North's 71-59 victory over Larkin in Tuesday's semifinal.

"Their guards are just so tough," Taft said. "Neari is a scoring point guard and he and Jonathan DeMoss handle the ball well. (Senior forward Zach) Hirsch can light it up from outside and (senior Mike) Kastel and (sophomore Josh) Mikes do all the rebounding. It's a well-balanced team all across the board.

"Tempo is the key. They want to push the ball. It would be to our advantage if we can play a mixed tempo and value every possession."

At Dundee-Crown: No. 3 Huntley's 62-56 upset of No. 2 Jacobs in Wednesday's semifinal put the Red Raiders in position to go 3-for-3 under third-year coach Marty Manning.

Huntley (15-12) won a Class 3A regional last season and a Class AA regional in 2007.

Standing in the way of the three-peat is No. 1 Dundee-Crown (20-5), which advanced to the title game with a 58-52 overtime victory against Elgin on Tuesday.

The teams have played twice this season. Dundee-Crown defeated Huntley 60-50 in the title game of the Sycamore Thanksgiving Tournament on Nov. 29. Huntley returned the favor six days later with a 44-41 victory on the Chargers' home court.

Can they pull the same trick a second time in the biggest game of the season?

"We're going to have to shoot the basketball really well, but I think it's going to come down to more than that," Manning said. "They've got eight seniors on their home floor who have been playing the whole season for this one game.

"I told our players the main thing is we have to want it as much as they want it. If we have any kind of letdown in terms of our tenacity, we're going to struggle to find a way to win."

Senior shooting guard Zac Boster hurt the Chargers in Huntley's victory on Dec. 5 with a pair of 3-pointers early in the fourth quarter that helped his team gain a 7-point lead.

'Boster made a couple of threes to get some separation and all of a sudden we were down 7 points instead of it being a 1-point game," Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said on Thursday while reviewing tape of the Dec. 5 game. "They didn't do a lot different in the second game. They just got better at defense and made 6 of the 10 threes they took.

"I think they're a good squad. They can hurt you. They don't make many mistakes, and I expect a battle to the finish. I think it's going to be a good game. They're definitely proving to be a solid team."

Class 3A at Burlington Central: No. 3 Hampshire was able to shake off enough rust from a 10-day layoff to beat Kaneland 47-38 in Wednesday's semifinal. The defense was solid, coach Bob Barnett said, but the sluggish offense showed the effects of the layoff.

"Our offense was horrible," Barnett said Thursday. "Our rhythm was off, our timing was off and we ended up dribbling the ball way too much. It left us with a lot of things to go over."

Barnett scheduled a longer practice on Thursday in an attempt to loosen the offensive gears before tonight's regional title game against top seed Wheaton Academy (16-8), which cruised past Sycamore 66-48 in a Tuesday semifinal.

To win their second regional title in four years, the Whip-Purs must contain 6-foot-8 Warriors forward Tim Rusthoven. The junior notched 16 points, 13 rebounds, 8 blocked shots and 5 assists in three quarters against Sycamore.

"(Rusthoven) is pretty smooth with the ball inside," Barnett said. "They run a real good high-low, they handle the ball real well and they're very unselfish.

"(Against Kaneland) we did a great job of rebounding and going to the offensive glass. We'll need the same thing (tonight) because I don't think Sycamore had a board until the fourth quarter.

"I have some ideas. We'll see if they work."