March Madness makes visits around the country in basketball each year. The college pairings announcements Sunday, March 17 for the 68-team NCAA Division I tournament, which will begin two days later and end in early April, is the visibly-diagnosed cases of March Madness each year.
There are many other observations, however, to include boys and girls high school basketball tournaments. The girls State tournaments in Illinois concluded Saturday, March 2 in the largest Class 4A following the afternoon Class 3A tournament.
The Division III men’s college basketball tournament for 64 teams started Friday, March 2 with six Illinois schools, to include Aurora University, North Central College, and Wheaton College.
Regional tournament championships Saturday evening whittled the field to 16 teams.
The one-and-done high school tournaments in Illinois promote the widely-quoted theme, “It’s never over until its over.”
Examples include the storied West Aurora High School program. West Aurora survived two scares in the Oswego Class 4A Regional tournament to advance to the Tuesday, March 5 East Aurora High School semifinal against Bolingbrook. The victories led to West Aurora’s 45th regional tournament championship, one of the top success stories in Illinois. West Aurora defeated Plainfield Central in Friday’s Oswego Sectional championship game, 66-65, after building a 17-point cushion late in the third quarter.
“It is difficult for any players to sustain focus for a whole game,” West Aurora head coach Brian Johnson said following the regional tournament plaque presentation. “It is even more difficult for high school players. We were a little loose with the basketball.”
Plainfield Central, which rallied from behind in a regional semifinal game earlier in the week to defeat Oswego, 68-67, finished the season with a 17-14 record and with a memorable tournament. Led by twins Javari Johnson and Tavari Johnson, against West Aurora, the Wildcats pulled to within 66-60 in the final minute with a full-court trapping defense to provide a scare to West Aurora.
West Aurora earlier in the week against Minooka, with only seven victories, trailed in the third quarter only to rally for a 51-41 victory.
Bolingbrook, 21-7, advanced to the East Aurora Sectional against West Aurora, 28-5, with a victory in the Bolingbrook Regional semifinal against East Aurora, 88-70,and defeated Joliet Central 78-57, in the Bolingbrook Regional championship game Friday. East Aurora finished with a 12-22 record.
In the other East Aurora Sectional pairing Tuesday, March 5 Waubonsie Valley, 27-4, of Aurora will play Oswego East, 23-7, in the 7:30 p.m. game. The elite teams played February 9 in a non-conference game. Host Waubonsie Valley won, 67-61. Oswego East captured the Southwest Prairie Conference championship. Waubonsie Valley took second place behind Naperville North in the DuPage Valley Conference.
Here are some of the other Friday Class 4A boys regional tournament championship game scores:
• At Metea Valley: Geneva, 45, Wheaton Warrenville South, 38;
• At Barrington: Fremd, 59, Barrington, 35;
• At DeKalb: Lake Park, 58, Benet Academy, 55, overtime;
• At Downers Grove South: Downers Grove North, 65, Downers Grove South, 42;
• At York: York 74, Oak Park-River Forest, 56;
• At Glenbard West: Lyons, 54, Glenbard West, 51;
• At Joliet West, Oswego East, 67, Lemont, 59;
• At South Elgin, 66, Cary-Grove, 60;
• At St. Charles East: St. Charles North, 48, Huntley, 39;
• At Tinley Park Andrew: Waubonsie Valley, 61, Plainfield North, 47.
In Class 3A regional tournament championship games:
• At IMSA: Glenbard South, 60, Montini, 56, overtime;
• At Sandwich: Ottawa, 47, Sandwich, 42;
• At Wheaton Academy: Burlington Central, 57, Wheaton Academy, 45.
Basketball fans of Glenbard South, based in Glen Ellyn were busy Friday, March 1 with split interests. The girls team won a semifinal game Friday afternoon in the four-team Class 3A State tournament at Redbird Arena in Normal with a 32-27 victory against Sacred Heart-Griffin from Springfield. The boys played in Aurora Friday evening at Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) and defeated Montini, 60-56, in overtime.
The Glenbard South girls played Saturday afternoon for the State championship against downstate Morton. Morton won, 35-21 to provide the Glenbard South girls with a State tournament second place trophy. The boys will advance to the Marengo Sectional against Woodstock North Wednesday, March 6. In the Tuesday, March 5 game at Marengo, Burlington Central will play Johnsburg. The winners will play for the Marengo Sectional championship Friday, March 8.
In the Class 2A boys sectional tournament Friday, March 1 at Aurora Christian, Chicago Orr defeated Chicago Uplift, 72-56. In semifinal games earlier in the week, Orr defeated Timothy Christian of Elmhurst, 68-39, and Uplift defeated Aurora Christian, 72-60.
In College Division III Friday, March 1:
• Host North Central College defeated Chatham (Pa.), 77-48, and Loras (Ia.) defeated Albion (Mich.), 75-64. Loras defeated host North Central, 84-82, for the regional championship to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.
• Host Augustana in Rock Island, Ill., defeated Aurora University, 93-67, and Capital (Ohio) defeated Wisconsin-Platteville, 78-76, in overtime in first-round Friday games. Host Augustana defeated Capital, 85-79, in the Saturday evening championship game.
• In other games involving Illinois teams, Wheaton College went to Wooster (Ohio) Friday and defeated Hanover (Ind.), 84-73, and defeated Wooster, 78-70, Saturday evening in the championship game. Lake Forest College fell to Wisconsin-Oshkosh, 86-62, at Saint John’s in Collegeville, Minn., and Eureka College fell to host Nebraska Wesleyan, 101-75, both in Friday first-round games. In the Sweet Sixteen, the Friday, March 8 game between host Augustana in Rock Island, Ill., and Wheaton, will be between the only two teams from Illinois remaining in the tournament. Augustana, 26-3, will be host site to two games Friday, against Wheaton, 21-8, at 5 p.m. prior to the game between Oswego State (N.Y.), 24-5, and Marietta (Ohio), 22-6 at 7:30 p.m. The Augustana-Wheaton game will assure one team in the Division III Elite Eight Saturday, March 9 at Augustana.
• The Division III national semifinals will be Friday, March 15 and the championship game will be in Fort Wayne, Ind. Saturday, March 16, the day prior to the Division I announcements of the 68-team field which may not include an Illinois school, unless Loyola University Chicago, or another school can win a conference tournament championship within the next two weeks.
The three Illinois schools in the 64-team women’s tournament each was defeated in the first round, Wheaton College, Illinois Wesleyan, and the University of Chicago. Hope College (Mich.) defeated Wheaton, 67-55.
—Carter Crane
