Boys basketball/Scouting Fox Valley regional finals
They worked through the summer-league months, sweating in hot gyms hour after hour.
They took thousands of shots at local playgrounds, at fitness centers, at park district courts, in pickup games — dreaming of someday hitting the shot that would bring their high school team to the brink of a regional title.
Beginning with the first official practice on Nov. 8, they ran drill after drill to improve. They learned help-side defense, when to cut, when to pass, when to screen, when to shoot.
For the boys basketball players from Elgin, Dundee-Crown, Bartlett, South Elgin, Huntley and McHenry, this is the night they’ve been waiting for all year.
Three Class 4A regional titles will be contested in the Fox Valley tonight. The winners will count themselves among the final 32 teams in the hunt for the state title.
The losers go home.
Here’s a look at the matchups:
At Larkin
No. 1 Elgin (21-5) vs. No. 3 Dundee-Crown (13-13): The area’s most storied programs meet for a regional title.
Elgin seeks its 41st regional title and first since the 2007-08 season, when the Maroons lost to Zion-Benton in a supersectional at Northern Illinois.
The Maroons are aiming for DeKalb once again, led by standout 6-foot-4 junior forward Kory Brown (16.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 3-0 apg), quick guard Dennis Moore (11.2 ppg), point guard and 3-point specialist Arie Williams (10.9 ppg) and senior leader Jordan Dean (9.7 ppg).
Elgin needed a last-second tip-in from Brown to beat Streamwood in a regional semifinal, but the Chargers realize they will face a dangerous opponent in the title game.
“They’re pretty good,” Dundee-Crown coach Lance Huber said of the Maroons. “We’ll try to come up with a game plan to stop them. They’re very talented. They play eight guys that are all good and they’ve got a stud in Brown. They’ve just got some really, really good players so we’ll have our hands full.”
Dundee-Crown seeks the program’s eighth regional title and fourth in eight seasons under Huber.
It’s a resilient group. The current crop of D-C seniors had the unenviable task of following a legendary team. The 2008-09 Chargers, led by Jeff Beck and Charles Kimbrough, placed fourth in the state.
With no experienced players returning from that team, D-C slipped to 5-22 last season. A year later the same personnel has forged a .500 record. Led by 6-4 senior forward Ryan Smith (13.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and 6-5 center Jamel Kimbrough (10.5 ppg, 7.9 rpg), it is a group on the precipice of carving its own special legacy in program history.
“Smith can go in and out so he’s a tough matchup,” Elgin coach Mike Sitter said. “He can pop out and hit a three or he can go down and post up.
“And Kimbrough has come a long way. He used to be just a body, a rebounder. He scored (10 points against Jacobs) so he can score a little bit for them. Kimbrough and Smith are real good athletes.”
At St. Charles East
No. 1 South Elgin (15-12) vs. No. 3 Bartlett (17-14): These District U-46 sister schools meet in a regional title game for the second straight season.
Bartlett won last year’s regional championship 66-61 and went on to upset Boylan in Rockford for the sectional title. Returning from that club are 6-foot-6 senior forward Femi Oyewole (6.9 ppg, 7.2 rpg) and 6-3 sophomore guard Lance Whitaker (16.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg), who has developed into the Hawks’ leading scorer.
The atmosphere was electric both times these teams met in the regular season even though each plays in a cavernous, modern gymnasium.
Take all that noise and compress it into an older, tinier gym like St. Charles East and you’ve got the recipe for an intense and memorable regional title game environment.
“That place is going to be rocking,” South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. “When (Bartlett) came to our place, our people at the front door counted 2,300 fans. And when we went there we brought about 1,000 people.
“But St. Charles East is a smaller gym with a great atmosphere. You’re a little bit closer to the floor. It’s going to be hot. It’s going to come down to who is mentally tough.”
There are no surprises left between these Upstate Eight Valley programs. The players grew up together and know each other well. South Elgin leading scorer Sam Sutter (18.2 ppg) and point guard Jake Maestranzi (8.0) would have attended Bartlett just like their older brothers had South Elgin not been built.
The teams split two games this season with each winning on its home court.
The Storm won 44-36 on Jan. 7. Sutter was held to 6 points, but Maestranzi sank 4-of-5 shots from 3-point range. Bartlett sophomore Lance Whitaker scored all 15 of his points in the second half, but the Hawks were otherwise limited by South Elgin’s physical man-to-man defense and fell to 0-4 in the UEC Valley.
The Hawks returned the favor with a 52-51 victory on Feb. 20. Maestranzi’s free throw gave South Elgin a 1-point lead with 13 seconds left, but Bartlett senior guard Matt Chaltin drove from midcourt to the baseline and sank what proved to be the game-winning bucket with 4.4 seconds left. It was Bartlett’s sixth straight win.
Coach Jim Wolfsmith said Bartlett must select good shots to dictate the pace, get hands in Sutter’s face when shooting and recover against other shooters like senior Martin Duarte (7.2 ppg), Maestranzi and senior Dillon Gardner (7.5 ppg).
“We’re used to doing this dance,” Wolfsmith said. “I think it will come down to who executes better in the crucial times during the game, whether they’re early or late doesn’t really matter. It’s going to be a game based on execution more than anything else because the teams know each other so well.”
At Prairie Ridge
No. 1 Huntley (23-4) vs. No. 2 McHenry (15-9): Huntley faces a size disadvantage against McHenry’s Brian Madson (6-foot-5), Robert Tonyan (6-4) and Jimmy Preston (6-4).
The Red Raiders swept the Warriors during the regular season, 63-56 and 48-41. However, McHenry was not at full strength in either meeting.
“The first time we played them we played really well,” Huntley coach Marty Manning said. “It was on their home floor. We got out pretty big on them early and then Madson caught fire. I think he had like 7 threes in the second half, but we were able to fight for a win by 5 or 7 points.
“The second time we played them both Madson (mononucleosis) and Preston (ankle) were out. We only ended up beating them by a few points and they played a lot of zone.
“But their size scares me.”
How well Huntley plays usually depends on how well the Red Raiders shoot. They were off the mark in the first half of Wednesday’s semifinal win over Cary-Grove, when they had trouble finding their rhythm due to the Trojans’ deliberate pace.
“If we miss shots, we’ll struggle for a little bit,” Manning said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to knock down some shots and make it a game.”
The Red Raiders are riding an 11-game winning streak. They seek the program’s fifth regional title and the third under Manning, led by seniors Tyler Brunschon (13.4 ppg) and Dylan Neukirch (10.4 ppg) and juniors Troy Miller (12.0 ppg) and Justin Frederick (8.2 ppg).