Tri-Cities boys basketball season in review
Aurora Central
Final record: 17-14, 8-2
Postseason: Won Class 3A Sycamore regional, won Class 3A Woodstock North sectional, lost 72-55 to Rock Island in Class 3A Northern Illinois University supersectional.
Key returners for 2011-12: Robert DeMyers, F, jr.; Paul Kaminski, F, jr.; Joey McEachern, G, jr.; Joe Medgyesi, G, so.
Season wrap: Nate Drye always likes to schedule tough and it paid off the Chargers when it mattered most. From both their Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments to playing teams like Rock Island in the nonconference, Aurora Central's 13-13 regular season record could have been much better playing schools their size. Instead, Aurora Central got better and then went out with a No. 3 seed and knocked off higher seeds Kaneland and Rochelle to win a regional before beating SCC rival Marian Central in sectional play. A thrilling 85-82 overtime win over Rockford East gave the Chargers their first sectional title since 1991. DeMyers was an imposing presence inside all year and came up big in the playoffs, blocking potential game-deciding shots in the final minute against both Rochelle and Marian Central. He'll be the team's top returning scorer next year at 13.1 points per game to go with 7.3 rebounds a game and 4 blocked shots a game. Harreld turned in a big senior season averaging 15.4 points a game. Drye will look for Kaminski (7 ppg) and McEachern (6.1 ppg) to make similar strides next year in their senior seasons to continue the roll the Chargers program has been on the last five years. "We want to get to Peoria. This wasn't our goal to get here," Drye said of reaching the supersectional. "We got to the door, we want to kick it down. I think we've been doing pretty well for quite a few years. We would anticipate not dropping off and being back here and winning this game next year. I'm so proud of them for coming together and putting it together finally. I thought we were better than we played for a good portion of the year. I'm just glad they realized their potential. They had the potential to be good all year. I'm very happy they were able to do it. Put together a run and do it. You don't want to say, 'That team should have been good.' They did it when it counted and that's what I'll remember about them."
Aurora Christian
Final record: 15-17, 6-4
Postseason: Won Class 2A Lisle regional, won Class 2A Aurora Christian sectional, lost 67-35 to Hales in Class 2A Joliet Catholic supersectional.
Key returners for 2011-12: Dean Danos, G, jr.; Nick Marema, G/F, jr.; CJ Schutt, F, jr.; Ryan McQuade, F, so.; Ryan Suttle, G, so.; Jonathan Harrell, F, fr.; Jake Hanson, G, jr.
Season wrap: At 12-16 through the regular season, it didn't seem like 2010 would be remembered that favorably. There certainly was talent. Danos arrived as a transfer from Richards and promptly scored 31 points in a season-opening win over Marmion. But Aurora Christian had trouble during the year meshing, leading to being 4 games under .500 in late January. It all came together in the postseason, starting with regional wins over Collins and Lisle and then sectional triumphs over St. Mel and Uplift. It was the sixth sectional championship in school history and first since 2000. "We got there though struggling and working hard together and adversity," Eagles coach Steve Hanson said. "That builds character. We're not going to forget our record. We'll use that to fuel us in the off-season. We put it together at the right time." The Eagles scored at least 73 points in all four postseason wins, showing how much scoring punch they have when they click on all cylinders. Danos wound up averaging 20 points a game while Marema added 12, and McQuade, Suttle and Schutt all had their share of double figure games. Coach Steve Hanson said they will use the loss to Hales in the supersectional to improve this summer and next year. "We have a lot of work to do," Hanson said. "They pretty (Hales) much showed us our weaknesses. The expectation next year is we want to be at state battling for that big trophy."
Batavia
Final record: 13-13, 8-4
Postseason: Lost 65-56 to Glenbard North in Class 4A West Aurora regional opener.
Key returners for 2011-12: Cole Gardner, F/C, jr.; Zach Strittmatter, F, jr.; Mike Rueffer, G, so.; Mike Jorgensen, G, jr.
Season wrap: Like St. Charles East and St. Charles North, Batavia finished at .500 the three Tri-Cities teams a combined 41-41 in what pretty much sums up the kind of up-and-down season it was for almost every area school. For the Bulldogs, they showed flashes of being able to take teams like Proviso East to the wire while also going through huge droughts like a scoreless fourth quarter in a loss to St. Francis or a key conference home defeat to Geneva when the Vikings were without leading scorer Dan Trimble. The Bulldogs caught a bad break at the end of the year when senior guard Jesse Coffey (13.5 ppg, 83 percent free throws) got sick, and their season ended early in a regional play-in game against Glenbard North. The Bulldogs will also miss Elliott Vaughn (11.6 ppg, 9.2 rpg). Among the bright spots was the play of Gardner inside. He simply dominated at times and finished at 14.4 points and 8.7 rebounds a game while shooting 54 percent from the field. Strittmatter (6.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and Rueffer (5.1 ppg, 3.3 apg) will have plenty of experience the next two years after starting all season as sophomores.
Geneva
Final record: 12-17, 6-6
Postseason: Lost 49-44 to Plainfield East in Class 4A Naperville North regional opener.
Key returners for 2011-12: Brendan Leahy, G/F, jr.; Ben Rogers, G/F, jr.; Phil Lorenz, G, jr.; Ryan Willing, G, jr.
Season wrap: Geneva coach Phil Ralston thought the way the Vikings' season ended summed up the year. "It's really been the story of our season when we don't execute in the fourth quarter, we lose," Ralston said after the Vikings' season-ending loss. Geneva got off to a 2-2 start at the Oswego/Naperville North Tournament and then added a couple more victories to get to 4-2. But there were signs of what could hurt them just 34 points in a loss to Waubonsie Valley and pretty soon the losses started to pile up with a 1-6 stretch broken by an impressive win over Lockport. Geneva then again started January with a nice 16-point victory over Bartlett and had other highlights including an overtime win at Batavia and beating St. Charles North in their home finale. Next year's team will have to find new ways to score points with Dan Trimble and his 15.5 scoring average leaving - the next closest to Trimble among Vikings who finished the year was Dan Hince at 6.9. For next year, Leahy's 5.5 points a game and Lorenz at 4.4 will enter as the top returning scorers. Lorenz also led the Vikings in assists at 2.3 a game.
Kaneland
Final record: 17-9, 8-2
Postseason: Lost 63-53 to Aurora Central in Class 3A Sycamore regional semifinals.
Key returners for 2011-12: Daniel Helm, F, fr.; Trever Heinle, G/F, jr.; Drew David, G, fr.; Kory Harner, G, so.
Season wrap: The Knights' first year in the Northern Illinois Big 12 proved to be a smashing success with the school's first conference title in 29 years. Kaneland did it in dramatic fashion, falling two games behind Rochelle early in the race. The Knights rallied from 16 points down in the third quarter to beat the Hubs and pull within 1 game. They then won their final two games at Yorkville and at Rochelle as part of an 8-game winning streak to end the regular season. The Rochelle win came on the final night of the regular season in a winner-take-all showdown. Chaon Denlinger capped an excellent senior season by scoring 26 points that game and taking home the conference MVP. Helm burst onto the scene averaging 11.8 and 6.5 rebounds as one of two freshmen in the starting lineup. David was the other at 3.5 points and 3.6 assists a game. They also will return David's backcourt partner Heinle who averaged 7.7 points. "These kids worked hard and won 17 games and won a conference championship and I am so proud of them," Kaneland coach Brian Johnson said. "They have nothing to hang their heads about."
Marmion
Final record: 15-13, 5-5
Postseason: Lost 60-50 to Crystal Lake Central in Class 3A Hampshire regional championship game.
Key returners for 2011-12: Alex Theisen, G, so.; Colin Kavanaugh, G, so.; Pete Stefanski, F, jr.; Eric Van Scoit, G, jr.; Andy Young, G, jr.
Season wrap: It took awhile for the Cadets to hit their stride as they had to wait to get several key players back from the football team's trip to the Class 6A state championship game, and they started 0-3. Marmion came together and played its best basketball down the stretch, winning a season-high 5 straight games until losing in the regional finals. Ryan Paradise led Marmion to a winning record in his first year as coach, though he'll have some big shoes to fill next year. Edy Grahovec leaves after setting a school record with 10 3-pointers in one game while averaging 16.6 points. Another senior Mark Bedelle wasn't that far behind at 15.6 points and 6.6 rebounds a game. That leaves Theisen as the leading returning scorer next year at 4.9 points a game.
St. Charles East
Final record: 14-14, 7-5
Postseason: Lost 41-37 to South Elgin in Class 4A St. Charles East regional semifinals.
Key returners for 2011-12: Kendall Stephens, G, so.; Charlie Fisher, G, jr.; Luke Ludke, F, jr.; Johnny Hondlik, F, jr.
Season wrap: The Saints showed something this season, overcoming an 0-5 start to get better throughout the year. An early season win over Elgin was the spark that kept the Saints in the Upstate Eight Conference race almost all season until back-to-back road losses at Batavia and Elgin late in the year. Now if they could only find a way to beat their rival St. Charles North who again took three games from the Saints this year. "I'm so proud of our kids and what they accomplished this season," Saints coach Brian Clodi said. "We were 3-9 at one time so to walk out of the season 14-14 is pretty good. We knew we could play with anybody." Clodi was most proud of the Saints' 10-3 record when holding teams below 50 points. "We really stepped it up on the defensive end," Clodi said. "We played through (sophomore leading scorer) Kendall (Stephens). He had an unbelievable sophomore campaign. He's going to be a special, special player." Clodi praised this year's senior group, which included Spencer Motley, Matt Ray, Dan Ditusa and Zach Zajicek. "The seniors we had we would keep them for the next 20 years if we could. This senior class is as special a class as I've ever had. We had Danny (Ditusa), Matt (Ray), Spencer (Motley) had four other guys who meant just as much to the team. They made it so much fun." After averaging 17 points a game as sophomore, Stephens is looking forward to what this team can do in his final two years. "I'm going to be a better leader on the court. As a junior (next season), my role is definitely going to increase like it did this year. We've got great juniors that are going to be seniors next year and I'm looking forward to playing with them."
St. Charles North
Final record: 14-14, 8-4
Postseason: Lost 67-58 to Bartlett in Class 4A St. Charles East regional semifinals.
Key returners for 2011-12: Kyle Nelson, F/C, jr.; Quinten Payne, G, so.; Jason Weinzirl, G, jr.; Alec Eickert, G, jr.; Will Ohlrich, F, jr.; Tony Neari, G, so.
Season wrap: So much was expected of this team coming into the year. They had an inside-outside game with three returning starters in Chris Conrad, Josh Mikes and Kyle Nelson, and they welcomed in a future Division I player in sophomore transfer Quinten Payne. But the North Stars never seemed to click, starting from Game 1. The North Stars lost their first three at the Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament, watching East Aurora's Ryan Boatright score 55 points on them in the third of those three losses. They couldn't get it going in the Upstate Eight race, losing twice to eventual champ Elgin. After three straight trips to the Jacobs Classic championship game at Christmas, the North Stars found themselves in the noon game on the final day. "We were inconsistent game by game," coach Tom Poulin said. "There's games we looked like a 20-win team, there's games we looked like a 10-win team. So you end up at .500. It's not for lack of effort, it's not for a lack of trying or lack of talent. It's up to me to figure out why that happened and make sure it doesn't happen again." There's still plenty of firepower here led by Nelson (12.3 ppg, 4 rpg, 3.1 apg, 57 percent from field) and Payne (12.9 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 2.7 bpg, 64.4 FT pct.) but they've got to find other players to contribute. In the season ending loss to Bartlett, only four North Stars scored. And a production distribution like that wasn't all that uncommon.
West Aurora
Final record: 14-12, 9-5
Postseason: Lost 76-59 to Wheaton Warrenville South in Class 4A West Aurora regional semifinals.
Key returners for 2011-12: Juwan Starks, F, jr.; Kenny Battle Jr., G/F, jr.; Jontrel Walker, G, fr.; Chandler Thomas, F, so.; Spencer Thomas, F, so.
Season wrap: A year that started with so much promise - coach Gordie Kerkman won his 700th game with the Blackhawks in the team's sixth game of the year - ended with a thud, the first time in 19 years West Aurora failed to reach a regional championship game. West Aurora was a bit of an enigma. They could play well enough to beat one of the state's best teams Crete-Monee, and they also could struggle and lose to Wheaton Warrenville South twice on its home court (and three times in the season) in a week's span, including the season-ending loss. Starks will be back for his fourth year as a varsity starter after posting 17 points and 5.5 rebounds a game on 42.5 percent shooting from the field and 76.7 at the line. The next three leading scorers all graduate, though Battle (6.3 ppg) and Walker (5.2) will provide production along with Starks.