Eddie Carifio

The boys basketball season postseason kicks off locally Monday with Indian Creek, Hiawatha and Genoa-Kingston opening with first-round regional games before semifinals Wednesday. Here are five things to keep an eye on as the postseason gets underway.

Hinckley-Big Rock's Martin Ledbetter scored 34 points, passing 2,000 career points, in a win at the Indian Creek Shootout, Kaneland also won at the Indian Creek Shootout, DeKalb boys basketball won a nonconference game and the NIU women were winners in Saturday's roundup.

A total of four DeKalb boys and girls wrestlers, five from Kaneland and seven from Sycamore qualified for state tournaments. Alex Gregorio-Perez, Angelina Gochis, Brooklyn Shaeffer and Carson West won sectional titles.

The DeKalb girls had four wrestlers reach the semifinals at the Geneseo sectional, Kaneland had three, and the Sycamore boys qualified five for the semis at the Washington sectional. That and other wrestling and basketball results.

Indian Creek, Hinckley-Big Rock and Sycamore all suffered losses in their regular-season finales on Thursday.

The shots weren’t falling for Genoa-Kingston and an 11-point lead against Harvard early dwindled to four in the third quarter. But the Cogs started crashing the boards and had solid ball movement throughout the second half to pull away to a 62-48 win.

The IHSA postseason gets underway Saturday for Daily Chronicle area teams with a quartet of play-in games for the Class 2A and 1A teams. Here are five storylines to watch.

Having struggled all game on the boards, the DeKalb rebounding came to life in the fourth quarter to help the Barbs knock off Metea Valley on Tuesday. Brytasia Long had 10 points, eight rebounds and a key offensive board in the win.

Sycamore had 10 sectional qualifiers as it won the Rockford East Regional, DeKalb qualified five, Lexi Carlsen drained four 3s as the NIU women, plus more in the prep roundup.

At the Kaneland Girls Bowling Regional, Sycamore's Kaitlynn Donner led six local qualifiers to reach the Oregon Sectional, plus more basketball in the roundup.

Kaneland senior guard Marshawn Cocroft said Sycamore came out in Friday’s Interstate 8 matchup and punched the Knights hard. But Cocroft got the last shot, his 3-pointer in the final 90 seconds of overtime giving Kaneland the lead for good in its 58-53 win over the Spartans.

Indian Creek and Hinckley-Big Rock won in the Little Ten Conference Tournament semifinals and will play in Friday's title game.

When DeKalb was turning around a slow start, Brytasia Long was at the center of the run that looked like it would give the Barbs a comeback win on Thursday. But Neuqua Valley responded after DeKalb scored 13 straight, holding on for a 46-42 win at DeKalb.

The NIU women picked up a win over Kent State while the G-K girls lost to Plano.

Sycamore's Carter York made his commitment to South Dakota State official at a ceremony Wednesday at Sycamore, while Thatcher Friedrichs formalized his commitment to North Central College.