advertisement

Several conference races up for grabs in final week

There's only one week left in the regular season before the Class 4A and 3A postseason begins, but there's plenty of drama still to play out in what have been tight Fox Valley, Upstate Eight and DuKane Conference races.

While the DuKane has been the most competitive of the three with three teams within a game of the lead, the Upstate Eight and Fox Valley both have two teams who have separated themselves - and play each other to likely decide the champion.

That starts Friday night in South Elgin where Bartlett (22-4, 14-1) and the Storm (16-9, 13-1) have pulled away from the field. The Hawks rolled in the first meeting 54-36 despite falling behind 15-0.

Lexie Sinclair scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half to spark the comeback while freshman Mackenzie Hare added 12.

The stakes will be just as high next Friday in Hampshire where the Whips host Dundee-Crown in the regular season finale for both. The Whip-Purs (23-5, 12-1) and Chargers (19-7, 11-1) will enter tied at 13-1 if Hampshire takes care of business against Cary-Grove and Huntley and the Chargers do the same against Crystal Lake South, Jacobs and Crystal Lake Central.

After Dundee-Crown beat Hampshire 46-39 at the Chargers Classic Christmas tournament, the Whips won the first conference meeting 40-30, holding the Chargers to 8 points in the first half. Nobody on either team scored more than 10 points in the game.

The DuKane race is not quite as clear thanks to St. Charles North's 42-31 win over Geneva on Tuesday. The Vikings would have dropped into a first-place tie with Wheaton Warrenville South if not for help from their friends at Batavia who knocked off the Tigers 33-30 a couple hours after Geneva's loss.

As it stands now, at 8-2 Geneva has a slim lead over WW South (7-3), Wheaton North (7-3) and Batavia (6-4).

Batavia and Geneva were supposed to play Thursday but it was canceled. The Vikings still have to play at Wheaton North and host Lake Park in addition to Friday's rescheduled Batavia game - who they only beat by 1 point on three Lindsay Blackmore free throws with .8 seconds to go - to try and close out a conference championship.

St. Charles North is 5-5 but has defeated Geneva and Lake Park - two teams ranked No. 5 and 6 in the Daily Herald Top 20 - by a combined 30 points in its past two games.

"The fact they (Geneva) are a two-time state championship team and North beat them it's a huge accomplishment but there's more to come for us," said St. Charles North freshman point guard Emma Ludwig, who had 16 points and 9 rebounds against Geneva.

"Any time you get to compete against a team like Geneva you are excited," North Stars coach Mike Tomczak said. "I feel a team that good and well-coached kind of brings out the best in your team. They bring out the best in us."

Another tight race: In Burlington Central's final season in the Kishwaukee River Conference, the Rockets are 9-1 and tied with Marengo. The teams split their regular season matchups and likely will share the crown if Burlington Central closes with wins over Harvard and Woodstock North and Marengo does the same vs. Richmond-Burton and Woodstock.

Rockets coach Mark Smith welcomed junior Kathryn Schmidt (knee) back to the lineup in Saturday's win over Sycamore. The team's leading scorer came off the bench and scored 7 points in her first game since Dec. 20.

"Now we're going to have some problems rotation wise," Smith said. "It's going to be competition (at practice), who can step up?"

"We're really working well as a team and it's great to have Kat back," added Gracie Ozburn, who scored 10 points against Sycamore including the Rockets' final 6 of the game. "It helps with the points and everything and we're happy to have her back."

Ozburn also is back at Burlington Central after playing the last two years at Harvest Christian.

"I love being back because all my friends are here," Ozburn said. "I miss Harvest a lot because I made a lot of good friends. I still go see them play."

Seeds come out: The IHSA released the postseason seeds for 4A and 3A teams Thursday. The matchups and brackets will come out Friday.

In the Batavia sectional, Geneva earned the No. 2 seed behind Rolling Meadows.

Other area schools include No. 3 Bartlett, No. 9 Batavia, No. 10 St. Charles North and No. 18 St. Charles East.

At the Belvidere North sectional, teams were split into two sub-sectionals. Hampshire is the third seed behind No. 1 Rockford Boylan and No. 2 Rockton Honegah while Dundee-Crown earned the top seed in the other sub sectional. Also grouped with the Chargers are No. 2 South Elgin, No. 5 Cary-Grove, No. 7 Crystal Lake South, No. 8 Larkin, No. 9 Streamwood, No 10 Elgin and No. 11 Jacobs.

At the Class 3A Rochelle sectional, teams also were split into two sub-sectionals. Burlington Central is third and Kaneland fourth in one of those behind Sandwich and Glenbard South. No. 6 Aurora Central Catholic, No. 7 St. Edward and No. 9 Rosary also are in the field.

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.