Mapping out Princeton’s potential road to a state championship

The Princeton Tigers have taken the first two steps in the postseason trail.

The Tigers rolled to the regional championship at Bureau Valley, defeating Hall and Stillman Valley (68-37).

Here’s one look from the hometown sports guy at how they could take the next five steps and go all the way to the Class 2A State championship.

Sectional

The next leg takes the Tigers to the Orion Sectional, where they will face Riverdale Tuesday. After defeating the Rams, the Tigers will look at either Rockridge (25-4) or Rock Falls (16-17). We’ll give Rockridge the nod here, having defeated Rock Falls by 26 points early in the season. While Rockridge has won the last four meetings over the Tigers and seven of eight dating back to 2012-13, Princeton wins this time, picking up its first sectional title since the 2009 team’s upset of Peoria Manual in perhaps Princeton’s biggest postseason victory in school history.

Supersectional

This year’s supersectional would send the Tigers to Sterling High School’s Musgrove Fieldhouse. The opponent comes out of the Johnsburg Sectional where No. 10 Rockford Lutheran is the team to beat. The Tigers win their first supersectional in school history over Lutheran, advancing to state for the first time in 68 years since the 1955 team finished fourth. It would not be a surprise if Aurora Christian or Niles Norridge Prep gets past Lutheran.

Note that the 1953-54 and 1954-55 Princeton teams reached what was the Sweet 16/State tournament, then in the one-class system, before supersectionals were implemented.

State

For the second year in a row, the IHSA State Finals are back in Champaign with all four classes played out over one weekend (March 9-11).

The winner of the Sterling Supersectional draws the winner of the Springfield Supersectional at State on March 9. That opponent will be a big hurdle, with No. 1 ranked Fairbury Prairie Central (30-2) looming as the favorite. But certainly don’t rule out the likes of No. 6 St. Joseph-Ogden (27-4) or No. 8 Pontiac (25-6), who Princeton has beat twice, coming out of the Herscher Sectional instead of Prairie Central or No. 3 Normal U-High (24-9) or Pleasant Plains (25-6), familiar foes who handed the Tigers their only losses, from the Pleasant Plains Sectional.

For these purposes, we’ve got the Tigers having to knock off the No. 1, Prairie Central, in the state semifinals.

Next up for the State championship, it’s going to be No. 2 Breese Central (27-4), which would have made it through the Pinckneyville Sectional, Carbondale Supersectional and past one of seven potential Chicago Schools or Joliet Catholic coming out of the Joliet Supersectional in the state semifinals.

Can the Tigers follow this path and win State? Time will tell, but it will sure be fun to find out.

The Elite Eight: Two of the top 10 ranked teams in the final Class 2A Poll have been eliminated in the postseason. No. 5 Columbia lost to Pinckneyville, 48-45, in regional play at Sparta while No. 9 Rockford Christian lost to Aurora Christian, 53-51, at Genoa-Kingston.

The remaining ranked teams all won regionals - host No. 1 Fairbury Prairie Central (30-2), No. 2 Breese Central (27-4) at Nashville, host No. 3 Normal U-High (24-9), No. 4 Princeton (31-2) at BV, No. 6 St. Joseph-Ogden (27-4) at Bismarck, host No. 7 Rockridge (25-4), No. 8 Pontiac (25-6) at Momence and host No. 10 Rockford Lutheran (24-9).

Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com