Bishop McNamara wins regional title rematch over Fieldcrest

MINONK − Just over a year ago, the Fieldcrest boys basketball team traveled up to Kankakee and beat host Bishop McNamara in the regional championship game. On Friday, the Fightin' Irish went down to Minonk and returned the favor.

Bishop McNamara beat the host Knights 61-45 to take home the IHSA Class 2A Fieldcrest Regional title, avenging last season’s loss and winning the second regional for the program in the last three seasons.

The Irish improved to 25-7 on the season and will face Joliet Catholic Tuesday in the semifinals of the Peotone Sectional. The Knights' season ended at 23-10.

McNamara head coach Adrian Provost said that last season’s 72-47 season ending loss to Fieldcrest added some fuel for the player returning from that team.

“They got us pretty bad at our place last year,” he said. “For the last almost two weeks now, we’ve had the score on the scoreboard when we’re practicing and it’s been on the kids’ minds. We were happy when we got assigned here, we were happy it was going to be us and them. We have a lot of those kids that are back from last year, our seniors wanted to play Fieldcrest here and show them what we were capable of.”

One of those seniors, guard Trey Provost, had a huge night in the win for the Irish. He scored a game-high 25 points to lead the team to its 26th regional title.

“It’s what we wanted after last year,” he said. “We’ve been writing it down, 72-47 that they beat us last year. Coming in here trying to get that win really meant a lot for this team.”

The Irish were up 24-16 at halftime, but the Knights hit some tough shots to tie the score 24-24 early in the third quarter. McNamara quickly regained control of the game and began a 17-3 run to close the quarter.

Trey Provost said that he and his fellow starters, seniors Willie Felton and Cole Czako and juniors Callaghan O’Connor and Karter Krustinger, huddled up on the court to get things back together after Fieldcrest tied the score.

“We grouped at the top of the key and we were like, ‘composure, we’re going to be composed,‘” he said. “After that they didn’t score for like two minutes straight and we got a run going again, started to heat up a little bit.”

Felton scored the first three points for the Irish on that pivotal run, three of his seven points in the game, to get things going in the right direction, much to the relief of Adrian Provost on the bench.

“Our senior point guard made a play and I didn’t have to burn a timeout,” he said. “That worked out, because I used them later in the third quarter with some of our foul trouble to talk with the kids about what we wanted to do to finish the quarter and the game. Our kids responded really well.”

O’Connor finished with eight points for the Irish while junior Coen Demack scored seven points off the bench.

On the receiving end of McNamara’s revenge win was a Fieldcrest team that saw a third straight season of 20-plus wins end, and the prep basketball careers of a great senior class along with it. Eddie Lorton, Jordan Heider, Isaac Kpa and Jackson Hakes had their high school basketball careers come to an end after helping the Knights go 79-21 over the last three seasons. Lorton and Heider spearheaded that run, and finished with 16 points and 12 points respectively on Friday.

Head coach Jeremy Hahn started with the group as a JV coach four years ago before coaching them at the varsity level over those three successful seasons.

“They were more mature at a young age than a lot of kids, and to watch them grow even further has just been an incredibly valuable and rewarding part of my job,” Hahn said. “Jordan and Eddie, absolute warriors. They put together a three-year run here that has been remarkable. They filled the trophy case, put up a whole bunch of wins and great show for a lot people. They are remarkable basketball players, some of the best in the state of Illinois in my opinion, and even better people.”