Suburban Sprawl is filled with fantastic finishes
This week featured no shortage of big games, great venues and ridiculous buzzer-beaters.
Let’s start in the Division 3 tournament. Timothy Christian grad Josh Harris tossed in this crazy shot at the buzzer to lead Illinois College past Dubuque at the buzzer. IC was down 1 before this final play.
The following night, Harris scored 30 points, but Illinois College lost a heartbreaker in overtime to Washington University in the second round. WashU features two starters from the suburbs — Barrington’s Will Grudzinski and Niles North’s Yogi Oliff.
There was drama across the state Friday in boys sectional finals, starting at Addison Trail with another dramatic ending for Glenbard North.
This is probably the best view of New Trier’s game-winner against Glenbrook North. Great play design, but a sad result for anyone dreaming of a Glenbard-Glenbrook supersectional.
Downers Grove North and Bolingbrook didn’t go down to the wire, so here are highlights of DGN’s Jack Stanton at work.
Here’s a couple different views of the final play in Normal’s crazy win over Quincy. Some might say there was a foul, others might feel the Quincy player lost his balance while lunging for a bad pass. Doesn’t really matter now. Normal faces Downers Grove North on Monday.
No drama whatsoever in Rockford as Warren rolled past McHenry
Palatine recovered from an early deficit to beat Stevenson and win its first sectional title in 42 years.
Crystal Lake South won easily in 3A, capturing the second sectional title in school history and first since 1983.
Here’s an interesting finish from the sectional semis, Peoria Manual just missed a 3 at the buzzer and Macomb survived. And those of us who covered high school hoops in the 90s are shaking our heads because the spread back then in this matchup would have been 110 points. But Manual has also slid down to Class 2A.
Curtain drops
Girls basketball wrapped up the season in Normal over the weekend. After losing to Loyola in the semis, Fremd captured third place, giving the Vikings one first-place, two seconds, a third and a fourth since 2015.
Here’s a before and after from Hinsdale South’s impressive run downstate. The Hornets took home the fourth place trophy in 3A.
Montini shared a pre-road trip team breakfast
Here are some accolades from teams that lost to eventual 4A state champ Loyola along the way.
Championship Wardles
Bradley coach Brian Wardle paid tribute to his two daughters after they led Peoria Notre Dame to the 2A state title. Freshman Emy hit the game-winning shot against Nashville.
Buzelis returns
Willowbrook native Matas Buzelis had a successful suburban homecoming Friday, as G-League Ignite lost to the Windy City Bulls in Hoffman Estates. Buzelis is expected to be a top-10 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
Mid-major masterpiece
There was a lot going on Friday night. Loyola demonstrated the benefit of shrinking the Gentile Center a few years ago, producing a hyped atmosphere against Dayton. Can the Ramblers win their first Atlantic-10 title?
D3 women’s tourney
Plenty of local stars contributed to Illinois Wesleyan’s first-round victory in the D3 tournament. Bardic is from Stevenson, Palmer from Geneva, White from Montini. IWU lost a close one to Wartburg in the second round.
More D3 tourney news
St. Charles North grad Max Love scored 27 points for Wisconsin-Platteville in a first-round win. The Pioneers are now headed to the D3 Sweet 16 after adding a second-round victory over Loras.
Loras’ leading scorers in that game were Naperville North’s Myles Barry and Maine East’s Ali Sabet with 14 points each.
Combine clips
Thanks to GopherHole, here are a couple nice clips of St. Charles North grad Tyler Nubin from the NFL Combine.
Kicking off
Naperville North grad Kayla Sharples, after five years with the Red Stars, has a new team in the NWSL, Bay FC.
Senior spotlight
Wright State posted this tribute to St. Viator grad Trey Calvin before Senior Night on Saturday. Calvin scored 23 points in the Raiders’ victory over Northern Kentucky. The Horizon League tourney should be a good one.
Championship parade
Hinsdale Central celebrated its boys swimming state title
Recruiting news
Rolling Meadows forward Ian Miletic had a nice week, getting an offer from Loyola and spending a weekend at Illinois.
College standouts
Glenbrook South’s Nick Martinelli scored a career-high 27 points in Northwestern’s win at Maryland
Maine West grad Angela Dugalic pulled out a new move in a victory over Arizona State
Here’s a highlight from Grant grad Chase Maifield for Valparaiso
College commits
West Aurora’s Jordan Brooks will play basketball at North Central
Glenbard East QB/LB Blake Salvino chose North Central for football
Pretty sure Carmel RB/LB Kyle Lynch committed to Wisconsin-LaCrosse for football, not the University of Wisconsin for Lacrosse. That was a joke, btw.
Vernon Hills athlete Anthony Martorano to Carroll University
Old gyms shine
Social media brought us some cool photos of unique Illinois high school gyms. Here’s one of “The Crater” at Clifton Central, which is a school you can see from I-57 on the way to Champaign. What’s the point of that ceiling?
Here’s the same gym with some court action …
Then there was a supersectional played beneath the Doug Collins banner at Benton High School …
Burdi bounceback
An appendectomy cut short Nick Burdi’s run with the Cubs last year. But the hard-throwing Downers Grove South grad is back on the mound with the Yankees in spring training.
Pulling the alarm
Soccer season returned Saturday. But Andre Drummond already knew that.