Challenging postseason for Fox Valley area teams
The Illinois High School Association released pairings for the Class 3A and 4A girls basketball postseason Friday and for a Fox Valley area team to reach the March 1 Streamwood supersectional, they'll have to plow through some awfully tough competition.
Sectional winners from Huntley and Libertyville will meet in the Elite Eight round at Streamwood and both those sectionals include highly regarded teams.
Geneva is the top team in the Huntley sectional field. The Vikings, who made the Final Four last season and are 23-0 and ranked No. 4 this year, are in the St. Charles North regional and will play the winner of the Feb. 15 play-in game between No. 4 South Elgin and No. 5 Batavia in one semifinal. No. 2 St. Charles North meets No. 3 St. Charles East in the other semi and the champion from SCN takes on the Cary-Grove regional winner in one Huntley sectional semifinal.
Cary-Grove is the top seed in its regional and will play the winner of the play-in game between Elgin and Larkin in the semifinals. No. 2 Streamwood and No. 3 Dundee-Crown meet in the other semi at Cary-Grove.
The other side of the bracket at Huntley features the winners of the Rockford Jefferson and McHenry regionals. Rockford Boylan (20-1), which is ranked No. 7 in Class 4A, is the top seed at Jefferson while 20-7 Jacobs is the top seed at McHenry. The Golden Eagles play the winner of the 4-5 game between Huntley and McHenry in one semifinal while No. 2 seed Crystal Lake South faces No. 3 Hononegah in the other semi.
The Huntley sectional winner will meet the Libertyville sectional champ at Streamwood in the supersectional round. The top four seeds at Libertyville are Mid-Suburban League heavyweights Wheeling and Hersey, followed by North Suburban Conference rivals Libertyville and Stevenson. Regional sites are Waukegan, Mundelein, Fremd and Stevenson.
Bartlett is the only Fox Valley area team playing outside the Huntley sectional. The Hawks are the No. 6 seed in the Lake Park sectional complex and have been assigned to the Glenbard East regional where they will play No. 10 seed Lake Park in one semifinal. The play-in game is between No. 15 Glenbard East and No. 18 Willowbrook and that winner meets No. 2 Elk Grove in the other semi. The top four seeds in the sectional are Fenwick, Elk Grove, Proviso West and Hoffman Estates. The Lake Park sectional winner meets the Niles North sectional winner in the Loyola University supersectional.
Class 3A: If Hampshire and Burlington are to meet for a third time, the fourth-seeded Rockets will need to beat No. 5 Sycamore in a play-in game of the Rochelle regional. A loss to No. 6 seed Kaneland likely cost BC the No. 3 seed, which was awarded to Rochelle. Hampshire (20-1) is the No. 1 seed and DeKalb No. 2. If Burlington wins its game against Sycamore, it would face Hampshire, ranked No. 7 in Class 3A, in one semifinal. The two meet for the second time this season Feb. 5 at BC. Hampshire won the first meeting 47-42.
The Rochelle regional winner moves on to the DeKalb sectional and will face the Freeport regional winner in the semifinals. Belvidere North is the top seed at Freeport. The other side of the DeKalb bracket has regional winners from Yorkville and Prairie Ridge meeting. Oswego and PR are the top seeds in those regionals.
The DeKalb sectional winner advances to the Elgin supersectional at Chesbrough Field House against the St. Viator sectional winner on March 1. Wauconda, Johnsburg, Gordon Tech and Regina Dominican are the top seeds in the St. Viator sectional.