Sports
Crystal Lake Cross-Town Finale is Perfect Tourney Prelude
State tournament play gets underway this week. Columnist Dave Masterson gives his opinion on the best teams in the Patch Hardwood Tour.
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At halftime, a cheerleader from each Crystal Lake team flip-flopped wildly across the basketball court from opposite ends, then slammed violently together in mid-spin near the center line to the concerned gasp of the full-house crowd.
Thankfully, neither of the young girls suffered serious injury, but their unintended meeting symbolized the full-bore battle that took place Friday night between the Crystal Lake Central Tigers (22-4) and the Crystal Lake South Gators (15-11).
The cross-town rivals put on the best show before the largest and most enthusiastic crowd of any game I witnessed on The Patch Hardwood Tour this season, with the visiting Tigers finally triumphing 54-51 in overtime.
The last minute of regulation alone was worth the price of admission. With his team trailing by a point, veteran Crystal Lake Central guard Joe Pijanowski (13 points) hit a cold-blooded 3-point shot with 6.6 seconds remaining to give his team a 49-47 lead. Long-shot specialist Kevin Rogers (15 points) of Crystal Lake South then put up an off-the mark trey with 5.5 seconds left that was corralled by teammate Tyler Dawson (10 points) and deposited in the hole just prior to the regulation-ending buzzer, tying the game and setting off a massive scream from the home fans.
The Tigers got just two baskets in overtime, a trey from junior point guard Chase Cane (11 points) and a deuce from 6-foot-7 Matt Gleixner (13 points), and that was all they needed. On the defensive end they hounded the Gators into 1-for-10 shooting in the extra four minutes of play to secure the victory.
No one witnessing the intensity could have guessed that this non-conference affair, which closed out the regular-season schedule for both teams, meant absolutely nothing as far as wins and losses was concerned. But it was just what the doctor ordered as far as prepping both clubs for state tournament play, which begins this week. It’s been a wildly successful season for the talented Tigers, who captured the Fox Valley Fox Division with an 11-1 mark; almost too successful.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more from a final game,” said Tigers coach Rich Czeslawski. “We’ve been winning so many games by big margins that I was wondering how we’d respond in a close one.”
Question answered. Gleixner, a team stalwart, missed school the previous two days with a high fever, but the prospect of competing against the Gators went a long way toward getting him back in the classroom on Friday.
“I wasn’t going to miss this game,” he said. Still a little weak, Gleixner was on the bench when the game began, absent from the starting lineup for the first time all year. But he was an important cog in the Tigers’ victory, and by the second quarter, when he was an unstoppable 5-for-5 from the field and the sick bed the furthest thing from his mind. “After a while the adrenaline kicked in and I felt just fine,” he said, smiling.
It was Gleixner who passed to Pijanowski for the clutch trey in the waning moments of regulation.
“Getting a chance to respond to tight situations like that is good for us before the playoffs,” he noted. While the big Tigers center was able to experience the game first-hand, Crystal Lake South head coach Dan DeBruyker was fed the details after the contest via cell phone by acting head coach Jason Bott, who is also the school’s athletic director.
Bott acted as the team’s head coach for the night when just prior to the game, DeBruyker had to be taken to the hospital due to an elevated heart rate. The interim coach said that DeBruyker was okay but being held overnight for further observation.
“This game was good for us,” said Bott, despite the loss. “This is the type of atmosphere it’s going to be like in the playoffs, so we might as well get used to it.”
Crystal Lake South weathered a season where one, then two of its starters missed games due to team violations, and because of the fluctuating lineup in their absence, I don’t believe the Gators ever reached their full potential this season.
They are a big, strong team who could, however, hit their stride in the playoffs and the added experience gained by the subs could work to their advantage down the line.
“We had to put some guys in positions they wouldn’t normally have played,” said Bott, pointing specifically to 6-5 senior Tyler Kretchmer, “and it probably made us more versatile.”
The Gators face McHenry on Wednesday to start the tournament, a team they beat twice during the regular season and by just one point two games ago.
“That’s a good team,” said Bott, “with a lot of good players who can score. We’ll have our hands full.” The Tigers begin what they hope will be a long playoff run on Tuesday against Burlington Central.
Let the Madness begin – a 17-team tournament primer
March Madness begins this week with 10 of the 17 teams on The Patch Hardwood Tour having legitimate chances to win Regional championships in the Class 4A and 3A tournaments respectively.
The following, in alphabetical order, is a thumbnail assessment of each team’s chances.
BARRINGTON BRONCOS (18-9) 4A
BUFFALO GROVE BISON (17-9) 4A
CARY-GROVE TROJANS (11-15) 4A
CRYSTAL LAKE CENTRAL TIGERS (22-4) 3A
CRYSTAL LAKE SOUTH GATORS (14-11) 4A
DUNDEE-CROWN CHARGERS (12-13) 4A
FREMD VIKINGS (17-9) 4A
GRAYSLAKE CENTRAL RAMS (15-12) 3A
GRAYSLAKE NORTH KNIGHTS (19-7) 3A
HUNTLEY RED RAIDERS (22-4) 4A
JACOBS GOLDEN EAGLES (16-12) 4A
LAKE FOREST SCOUTS (12-14) 4A
LAKE ZURICH BEARS (7-19) 4A
LIBERTYVILLE WILDCATS (11-15) 4A
PALATINE PIRATES (9-17) 4A
PRAIRIE RIDGE WOLVES (7-18) 4A
STEVENSON PATRIOTS (14-12) 4A
Thankfully, neither of the young girls suffered serious injury, but their unintended meeting symbolized the full-bore battle that took place Friday night between the Crystal Lake Central Tigers (22-4) and the Crystal Lake South Gators (15-11).
The cross-town rivals put on the best show before the largest and most enthusiastic crowd of any game I witnessed on The Patch Hardwood Tour this season, with the visiting Tigers finally triumphing 54-51 in overtime.
The last minute of regulation alone was worth the price of admission. With his team trailing by a point, veteran Crystal Lake Central guard Joe Pijanowski (13 points) hit a cold-blooded 3-point shot with 6.6 seconds remaining to give his team a 49-47 lead. Long-shot specialist Kevin Rogers (15 points) of Crystal Lake South then put up an off-the mark trey with 5.5 seconds left that was corralled by teammate Tyler Dawson (10 points) and deposited in the hole just prior to the regulation-ending buzzer, tying the game and setting off a massive scream from the home fans.
The Tigers got just two baskets in overtime, a trey from junior point guard Chase Cane (11 points) and a deuce from 6-foot-7 Matt Gleixner (13 points), and that was all they needed. On the defensive end they hounded the Gators into 1-for-10 shooting in the extra four minutes of play to secure the victory.
No one witnessing the intensity could have guessed that this non-conference affair, which closed out the regular-season schedule for both teams, meant absolutely nothing as far as wins and losses was concerned. But it was just what the doctor ordered as far as prepping both clubs for state tournament play, which begins this week. It’s been a wildly successful season for the talented Tigers, who captured the Fox Valley Fox Division with an 11-1 mark; almost too successful.
“You couldn’t ask for anything more from a final game,” said Tigers coach Rich Czeslawski. “We’ve been winning so many games by big margins that I was wondering how we’d respond in a close one.”
Question answered. Gleixner, a team stalwart, missed school the previous two days with a high fever, but the prospect of competing against the Gators went a long way toward getting him back in the classroom on Friday.
“I wasn’t going to miss this game,” he said. Still a little weak, Gleixner was on the bench when the game began, absent from the starting lineup for the first time all year. But he was an important cog in the Tigers’ victory, and by the second quarter, when he was an unstoppable 5-for-5 from the field and the sick bed the furthest thing from his mind. “After a while the adrenaline kicked in and I felt just fine,” he said, smiling.
It was Gleixner who passed to Pijanowski for the clutch trey in the waning moments of regulation.
“Getting a chance to respond to tight situations like that is good for us before the playoffs,” he noted. While the big Tigers center was able to experience the game first-hand, Crystal Lake South head coach Dan DeBruyker was fed the details after the contest via cell phone by acting head coach Jason Bott, who is also the school’s athletic director.
Bott acted as the team’s head coach for the night when just prior to the game, DeBruyker had to be taken to the hospital due to an elevated heart rate. The interim coach said that DeBruyker was okay but being held overnight for further observation.
“This game was good for us,” said Bott, despite the loss. “This is the type of atmosphere it’s going to be like in the playoffs, so we might as well get used to it.”
Crystal Lake South weathered a season where one, then two of its starters missed games due to team violations, and because of the fluctuating lineup in their absence, I don’t believe the Gators ever reached their full potential this season.
They are a big, strong team who could, however, hit their stride in the playoffs and the added experience gained by the subs could work to their advantage down the line.
“We had to put some guys in positions they wouldn’t normally have played,” said Bott, pointing specifically to 6-5 senior Tyler Kretchmer, “and it probably made us more versatile.”
The Gators face McHenry on Wednesday to start the tournament, a team they beat twice during the regular season and by just one point two games ago.
“That’s a good team,” said Bott, “with a lot of good players who can score. We’ll have our hands full.” The Tigers begin what they hope will be a long playoff run on Tuesday against Burlington Central.
Let the Madness begin – a 17-team tournament primer
March Madness begins this week with 10 of the 17 teams on The Patch Hardwood Tour having legitimate chances to win Regional championships in the Class 4A and 3A tournaments respectively.
The following, in alphabetical order, is a thumbnail assessment of each team’s chances.
BARRINGTON BRONCOS (18-9) 4A
- No. 3 seed in own sectional (Libertyville Regional)
- Co-champs of Mid-Suburban League West Divisio
- Top seed in Libertyville Regional
- First game 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1 vs. winner of host Libertyville or Palatine
BUFFALO GROVE BISON (17-9) 4A
- No. 6 seed in Barrington Sectional group (Libertyville Regional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. Deerfield
CARY-GROVE TROJANS (11-15) 4A
- No. 4 seed in Prairie Ridge Regional (feeding Jacobs Sectional)
- First game Monday, Feb. 28, 7:30 p.m. vs. Prairie Ridge
CRYSTAL LAKE CENTRAL TIGERS (22-4) 3A
- No. 1 seed in Hampshire Regional (Woodstock North Sectional)
- Champion of Fox Valley Fox Conference (11-1)
- First game 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 1, vs. Burlington Central (16-11)
CRYSTAL LAKE SOUTH GATORS (14-11) 4A
- No. 3 seed in Prairie Ridge Regional (Jacobs Sectional)
- First game 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. McHenry
DUNDEE-CROWN CHARGERS (12-13) 4A
- No. 3 seed in the five-team Larkin High Regional in Elgin (Jacobs Sectional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. Jacobs
FREMD VIKINGS (17-9) 4A
- No. 5 seed in Barrington Sectional (Fremd Regional)
- Co-champs of Mid-Suburban League West Division
- First game 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. winner of Rolling Meadows vs. Round Lake
GRAYSLAKE CENTRAL RAMS (15-12) 3A
- No. 5 seed in the Ridgewood High Sectional (Vernon Hills Regional)
- First game 8:10 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. winner of Wauconda vs. Aspira Charter
GRAYSLAKE NORTH KNIGHTS (19-7) 3A
- No. 2 seed in the Ridgewood Sectional and top seed in Fenton High Regional
- First game 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 1 vs. winner of Senn vs. Kelvyn Park
HUNTLEY RED RAIDERS (22-4) 4A
- No. 1 seed in the Prairie Ridge Regional (Jacobs Sectional)
- Valley Division champions in Fox Valley Conference with 9-1 record
- Opened season by winning Strombom Thanksgiving Tournament
- First game 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 against winner of Cary-Grove vs. Prairie Ridge
JACOBS GOLDEN EAGLES (16-12) 4A
- No. 2 seed at Larkin High Regional (Jacobs Sectional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 2 vs. Dundee-Crown
LAKE FOREST SCOUTS (12-14) 4A
- No. 13 seed in the Barrington Sectional (Fremd Regional)
- First game 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 vs. Lake Zurich
LAKE ZURICH BEARS (7-19) 4A
- No. 20 seed in the Barrington Sectional (Fremd Regional)
- First game 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 vs. Lake Forest
LIBERTYVILLE WILDCATS (11-15) 4A
- No. 15 seed in the Barrington Sectional (Libertyville Regional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 vs. Palatine
PALATINE PIRATES (9-17) 4A
- No. 19 seed in the Barrington Sectional (Libertyville Regional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 vs. Libertyville
PRAIRIE RIDGE WOLVES (7-18) 4A
- No. 5 seed in own Regional (Jacobs Sectional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 against Cary-Grove
STEVENSON PATRIOTS (14-12) 4A
- No. 14 seed in Barrington Sectional (Mundelein Regional)
- First game 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28 vs. Grant