Highland Park 51, Waukegan 50

There was very little room for error for host Highland Park on Friday night in the Giants' Class 4A boys basketball regional championship game.

But with just enough of everything combined, No. 3-seeded Highland Park found the recipe for an exciting 51-50 victory over No. 11 Waukegan to capture the regional crown.

Highland Park (22-5) will face No. 7 Schaumburg in the Barrington sectional Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. The Bulldogs closed out their season with a 13-14 record.

There was very little momentum for either team in the contest as the Giants briefly held their biggest lead at 31-24 very early in the third quarter.

The game went back and forth the whole way with a reverse layup by Highland Park's Tellef Lundevall with 3:26 to play giving the Giants a 51-50 lead.

That would be the final points of the contest as Waukegan's Naudgee Carpenter ran right into Highland Park's Josh Cowin on a driving attempt with about six seconds to play.

Lundevall was fouled with 3.2 seconds to play and he missed the front end of a 1-and-1 free throw.

But after taking a timeout with 2.8 seconds remaining, Waukegan's Reginald Thomas was called for over and back with one second left to essentially seal the outcome.

Highland Park's Chris Wroblewski scored 11 of his game-high 21 points in the second half, including four 3-pointers overall. Lundevall and Josh Bartelstein scored 10 points each for the Giants.

"We feel we can do a lot of things offensively, especially with a great point guard like Chris (Wroblewski)," said Lundevall. "You've got to give (Waukegan) a lot of credit for playing under a lot of adversity and they gave us a fight to the end."

A 3-pointer by Thomas tied the score at 14-14 after one quarter before Highland Park took a 28-24 lead into halftime. The Giants led 42-39 after three quarters.

"Both teams showed a lot of resilience and we just found a way to win," said Highland Park coach Paul Harris. "I thought Waukegan played very well tonight and Chris (Wroblewski) hit some really big shots for us."

Junior Colin Nickerson led Waukegan with 16 points while Thomas and Rashaan Melvin added 9 points apiece.

"It was anybody's game tonight and there is not one play you can point to that made the difference in the outcome," said Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw. "These are all good teams and I was very pleased with how we played the last two games."

In one of the wilder plays of the game, Lundevall threw down a powerful two-handed dunk for a 46-41 lead with 6:44 to play.

One referee tried to call a technical foul on Lundevall for hanging on the rim after the dunk, but he was overruled by a referee behind the basket who saw that there was a Waukegan defender lingering below Lundevall.

-- John Bumbales

Senn 64, Ridgewood 58: Two schools that are only five miles apart traveled over two hours on Friday to face each other for the first time ever.

However, the two teams made the trip worthwhile for their fans as fourth-seeded Senn outlasted fifth-seeded Ridgewood 64-58 to capture the Class 3A boys basketball regional final at Grayslake North.

Senn (18-3) will meet North Chicago in the Class 3A sectional semifinals on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.

"This was not one of our best efforts because we don't know how to finish games," Senn coach Anthony Colston said. "Ridgewood gave us a game and kept battling back so let's give them some credit.

"I know that we are going to have a battle against North Chicago. They play a tough defensive game so we know we can't have as many turnovers as we had tonight."

Senn's Angel Colina led all scorers with 16 points, while Robert James scored the first 6 points of the game and finished with 15 points.

"I was happy to see the team hang in there," James said. "Ridgewood changed defenses on us by using various screens and did a great job to slow us down."

Senn led 33-21 at halftime, but Ridgewood kept chipping away at the lead.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Rebels were down 50-41. But senior Mike Alongi, who started the game by missing his first 5 shots, hit three 3-pointers to lead an 11-2 run, tying the game at 52-52 with 2:56 left.

Senn then finished the game with a 12-6 run to capture the championship.

Alonzi, led the Rebels with 14 points, 11 coming in the fourth.

"The coaches were getting on us at halftime and being down by 12, we knew we needed to come out with some energy," Alongi said. "I knew that after missing my first 5 shots in the first quarter, I needed to step it up."

Damian Tabor and Rob Aghajan scored 11 points apiece for the Rebels,

Ridgewood finished the season with a 14-7 record.

"I felt we made too many mistakes on turnovers," Ridgewood coach Patrick Woods said. "I was happy to see Alongi get hot when we needed him in the fourth, but then we let it slip away."

-- Irv Solomon