Regional rewind: Breaking down Friday's IHSA state tournament action

By and large, the Cinderella story in IHSA state tournament play is more rare than you think.

We all get wrapped up in what we believe the Original March Madness here in Illinois provides — an unpredictable nature. But it’s simply not very often low-seeded teams advance beyond the regional.

The Class 4A state tournament hasn’t had a double-digit seed advance to the sectional since 2022. This year there are two: Yorkville and Simeon.

Yorkville and Simeon are the two lowest 4A seeds remaining as No. 13 and No. 11 seeds, respectively. How rare is it for a Class 4A double-seeded team to advance beyond the regional?

In the last 15 completed regionals since 2011 (minus the Covid season), there have been just 11 double-seeded teams (seeded 10th or lower) to win regional championships.

And since 2011, only five teams seeded 13 or lower have won a regional — Yorkville this season as a No. 13, West Aurora as a No. 14 seed in 2021, DuSable as a 13-seed in 2013, Thornton as a No. 12 in 2012 and Schaumburg, a No. 15 seed in 2011, who went on perhaps the biggest 4A Cinderella run in recent memory.

Schaumburg, seeded 15th in the sectional, stunned No. 2 seed Evanston in the regional semifinals before taking out seventh-seeded New Trier in the regional championship. Then the Saxons beat another double-seeded team, Niles West, in the sectional semifinal and nearly upset Niles North in the sectional championship, falling 53-52.

Simeon as Cinderella?

You almost feel like an idiot — or at least foolish — putting Simeon and Cinderella in the same sentence unless it’s someone beating Simeon. After all, it’s a program with seven state championships and a dozen top four finishes.

However, this is a Simeon team that left the Pontiac Holiday Tournament and proceeded to go 1-3 over the holidays at Pekin. The Wolverines lacked a single marquee win on the season. Now this invigorated team will get a shot at the No. 2 seed, St. Ignatius, in the sectional semifinal.

A Central Illinois name to know

It’s still early as he’s only a sophomore and the attention is coming, but if Amarion Smith-Holley played his basketball in the Chicago area he would be a household name in high school basketball.

The Peoria Richwoods point guard dazzled in the Minooka Regional final, teasing Rock Island all night long with a pretty spectacular 31 points. The points came in all shapes and sizes as he led the Knights to an intense and very testy 72-66 win.

Catholic League success

The Chicago Catholic League was without question the strongest conference in the state during the regular season. With league teams being spread out geographically and into multiple classes, the volume of opportunities for postseason success is abundant in comparison to other leagues.

But the Catholic League didn’t disappoint and made the most of those opportunities.

Of the nine teams in the Catholic League Blue, seven won regional championships Friday night, including one of the two losses being one league team knocking the other out (St. Laurence over Mount Carmel).

Add in three regional titles from the Catholic League White — Leo and Providence both pulled out 3A wins and De Sales was a 1A winner — and the league as a whole will have an impressive 10 teams playing sectional basketball this week.

A handful of close games

With just four one-possession games out of the 32 played, there wasn’t a whole lot of drama or last-second heroics in Friday’s 4A regional championship games.

The four barnburners included Palatine’s 44-42 win over Barrington, Stevenson’s one-point win over Buffalo Grove, and both Simeon beating Young and Normal getting by East Moline United by identical 55-54 scores.

While the results didn’t necessarily surprise as each of these teams were the higher seed, the actual final scores did. Here are a few scores from favorites that opened eyes:

Marist 82, Rich 54

The RedHawks, who I did pick to reach Champaign, went on the road and dismantled a Rich team that was playing well and was on its home floor.

Hersey 62, Rolling Meadows 36

These two met twice in the regular season and split two tight games.

Warren 70, Libertyville 65

There is a lot of familiarity between these two North Suburban Conference teams. But after losing twice in the regular season by 17 and 33 points, Libertyville hung in there and put a real scare into one of the state’s best teams.

More notes

• Stevenson hasn’t lost a regional game since 2018. Now the Patriots seek out their first sectional title since 2019.
  
• The recent Palatine run is one that keeps adding to the record books. The latest — a school record 29 wins — came in its 44-42 win Friday night over Barrington. The record win total of 28 was previously set just two years ago.
  
• Kaneland’s record remains unblemished at 32-0. That’s now 64 wins in two seasons and an average of 29 wins a year over the past four seasons. Impressive. The Knights took care of business in beating Burlington Central 70-52 behind Marcus Cocroft’s 30 points. They are two wins away from capturing back-to-back sectional championships.
  
• The results of the Class 3A Hinsdale South Sectional left the following seeds still alive: No. 3, No. 5, No. 7 and No. 8. St. Francis, the No. 7 seed, took out top-seeded Joliet Catholic and the No. 2 seed, Oak Forest, lost to No. 8 Providence 39-36. Now No. 5 Lemont faces St. Francis, a team it beat back in December, while Providence and No. 3 seed Wheaton Academy meet in the other sectional semifinal.
  
• Reviewing the 3A and 4A regional picks. The record in regional title game picks from Friday night in Class 4A: 28-4. The misses include Wheaton-Warrenville South, Simeon, Yorkville and Peoria Richwoods. The Class 3A picks were exactly the same at 28-4 with the misses being Lake Forest, Lincoln, Crystal Lake South and Providence.