Suburban Sprawl watches former Mundelein star become a March hero
Mundelein grad Conor Enright might have hit the biggest shot of the season in the Missouri Valley Conference. In Sunday’s MVC title game at St. Louis, Drake led Indiana State by 16 points with 8:38 remaining.
The Sycamores made a furious comeback and briefly took the lead. Then this Enright 3-pointer with 2:06 remaining put Drake ahead to stay and the Bulldogs punched their ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Swanson’s shot boiling
Purdue’s women’s basketball team won’t be going to the NCAA Tournament, but there’s hope for the future after Sophie Swanson, a freshman from Barrington, scored 25 points and hit 7 3-pointers in a Big Ten tourney loss to Nebraska.
Swanson suffered a knee injury during her senior season at Barrington, but was able to make her Purdue debut on Nov. 26 and she was playing significant minutes by the end of the Big Ten campaign.
Lewis flying high
Lewis University’s women’s basketball team won the GLVC tourney. The leading scorer with 31 points was Jenna Badali from Mother McAuley. Some other suburban contributors were Taylor and Tara Gugliuzza from Lincoln-Way West; and Kathryn Schmidt from Burlington Central. The Flyers will take on Ferris State in the first round of the NCAA D2 tournament.
Four Lewis players made the all-conference team …
On the men’s side, Cary-Grove grad Beau Frericks was named first-team all-conference, while Glen Ellyn native Ryan Renfro was all-freshman. The Lewis men lost in the GLVC title game.
D3 down to four
Not much to report in the D3 tournaments in regard to local players. Calvin’s men’s team lost to Trinity, Conn. in the Elite Eight. The men’s Final Four is Trine vs. Trinity and Guilford vs. Hampden-Sydney. The D3 women’s Final Four includes NYU vs. Transylvania and Smith vs. Wartburg.
Here’s Trine, located in Angola, Ind., beating Wisconsin-Platteville at the buzzer in OT.
Hersey grad Mary Kate Fahey will join NYU at the Final Four in Columbus, Ohio. Pretty sure that’s her in the front row, next to the plaque.
Final hoops weekend
High school basketball season is over in Illinois, but this one will always be remembered at Palatine, which took home the fourth-place trophy.
Here’s a nice moment in time when the team bus pulled away from the high school …
Palatine’s Connor May passed one of the all-time MSL greats to become his school’s all-time leading scorer. Kevin McKenna spent six seasons in the NBA, including a rookie year in 1981-82 with the champion Los Angeles Lakers. Not sure if he was depicted in the HBO series “Winning Time,” but he was on that team with Magic and Kareem.
So close …
It was a long day Thursday for Aurora Christian in Class 1A, losing in double-overtime to West Central in the semifinals, then dropping the third-place game by 1 point against Hope Academy. Tough ending to a great season.
Leaving a winner
Loyola honored Naperville North’s Tom Welch at senior day on Saturday. You can hear the extra juice from the crowd when Welch buried a 3-pointer against LaSalle.
After the game, the 6-foot-10 former soccer goalie celebrated the regular season Atlantic-10 co-championship with teammates Jalen Quinn and Greg Dolan.
Juco success story
Triton College won the Region 4 title in the junior college tournament. Former Zion-Benton star Amar Augillard scored 30 points in the championship game victory over Highland.
Spring standouts
Here’s a Valparaiso highlight from former Lake Zurich left-hander Lucas Foley …
This combined shutout by North Central College was interesting. Antioch grad A.J. Kutcher threw the first 7 innings, and football QB Luke Lehnen picked up the save.
Basketball commits
Loyola’s Kelly Langston is headed to Cornell
Buffalo Grove’s Luke Anamndu to Wisconsin Lutheran
West Aurora’s C.J. Savage to Waubonsee College
Northridge Prep’s Javi Christoffel to Saint Mary’s, Minn
Get scouted
North Central’s Antwain Walker (Oswego East) took part in NIU’s pro day this week.
Bringing some friends over
Finally, on the way to play Northwestern this weekend, the Minnesota Golden Gophers held a practice at Rolling Meadows HS, former home of freshman Cam Christie