Times Boys Basketball Notebook: After key late-season matchups, focus turns to the IHSA postseason

It wasn’t the plan when Ottawa and Streator maintained a late-season boys basketball matchup after they parted conference ways, but every few years that February nonconference meeting of the Pirates and the Bulldogs has turned into a regional preview.

Such was the case Saturday when Streator welcomed its old rival to Pops Dale Gymnasium, winning a 48-41 showdown to even the season series. Ottawa bested Streator 54-38 at the start of the season in the championship game of Ottawa’s Dean Riley “Shootin' the Rock” tournament.

The Bulldogs (23-5 coming into the week and a No. 2 subsectional seed) and Pirates (9-16 and a No. 7 seed) will meet a third and final time Wednesday, Feb. 26, to open the Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional.

Having just learned of their postseason assignments the day before, Ottawa and Streator played a somewhat vanilla matchup in terms of X’s and O’s on Saturday, trying not to show too much. How much new information the Pirates and Bulldogs could actually learn by this point of their basketball careers, having been rivals separated by just 16 miles of Route 23 their entire lives, is, quite honestly, debatable.

“Both teams and programs are so familiar with one another,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “We can take away some little things from this game, maybe some minor tweaks, but they’re who they are, and we’re who we are.

“Not much is going to change in a week and a half.”

Streator coach Beau Doty agreed, although he and his Bulldogs certainly enjoyed the get-even victory and look forward to a busy final week of the regular season to get prepared for that regional rubber game with the Pirates.

“You’ve got to enjoy moments like this on your home floor,” Doty said, “and we’re excited it’s not our last home game now. We’ve still got three [games] next week: a test at Wilmington, one of the better teams in our league, and then two Mid-Illini [Conference] schools, Morton that reached out looking for a game and we appreciate their willingness to come here Wednesday, and [Friday] at Pekin.

“That should get our teeth cut really well for us to be ready to go when it really matters.”

Seneca seniors hope to keep it going

It’s been a special season for the Seneca Fighting Irish, one that heading into this week already has led to 24 wins and the program’s 27th regular-season conference championship – amazingly their first as a member of the Tri-County Conference.

Seneca clinched that title Friday with a 61-32 handling of current TCC runner-up Woodland. It was also senior night for a small but significant class of three Irish seniors, a group Seneca coach Russ Witte is hoping can lead the team to more hardware come next week’s Class 2A Princeton Regional, in which the Irish are the top seed.

“I think Sebastian [Deering] has been a godsend for us this year, playing bigger than his stature. He’s 6-5, but he’s skin and bones, and he’s been a horse for us,” Witte said. “Grant [Siegel] is starting to come into his own hitting shots and free throws. And Pax[ton Giertz, the two-time Times Boys Basketball Player of the Year], we can’t say enough about him. He’s the glue that holds everything together ... and in my mind the most unselfish 2,400-point scorer I’ve ever seen.

“All three of them deserve everything they have gotten this year. I just hope we can continue that with a 2A schedule here in a couple weeks and hoist a regional trophy as well.”

Woodland readies for rematch with Flanagan-Cornell

Speaking of Friday’s Woodland at Seneca game, Warriors coach Connor Kaminke said afterward his team needs to have a short memory and close out the regular season strong to get ready for the Class 1A LeRoy Regional. Some good news along that front? Woodland’s next three games are all at home, including a Monday, Feb. 24, regional quarterfinal against friendly rival Flanagan-Cornell.

Despite their playing yearly, sometimes multiple times a season, it has been 14 years since Woodland has beaten Flanagan-Cornell in varsity boys basketball, the last also coming in a Monday regional play-in – 79-48 on Feb. 21, 2011. The Falcons rallied to best Woodland 63-60 in overtime back in the opening week of this season in the Woodland Pool of the Route 17 Classic.

“At this point of the season, there’s no benefit in hanging your head and moping around,” Kaminke said after the loss to Seneca. “It’s just learn from the loss, find a way to grow and find a way to win these next three homes games we’re going to have. ...

“We found out today we get another shot at our rival, Flanagan[-Cornell] in regionals. Hopefully we can treat this [loss to Seneca] as a lesson and move on to bigger and better things next week.”

Marquette Regional an interesting one

In terms of local intrigue at the Class 1A level outside of that Woodland-Flanagan rematch, the Marquette Regional at Bader Gym should be the one to watch.

The seven-team field requires three quarterfinal play-in games at the homes of the higher seed before play comes to Ottawa, with only Hinckley-Big Rock – the No. 2 seed in the subsectional, which enters this week with a 22-8 record and tied with Newark atop the Little Ten Conference standings – earning a bye into Wednesday’s semifinals.

All three Monday night quarterfinals will be hosted by Times-area schools, with No. 6 Serena entertaining No. 9 Earlville, No. 14 Gardner-South Wilmington at Newark, the No. 3 seed, and regional host/seventh-seeded Marquette welcoming No. 8 Dwight.

The host Crusaders have gone 3-4 against teams in the field, including splitting pairs of games with both Serena and Dwight. Marquette has suffered double-digit losses in recent weeks to the two top seeds, Newark (67-54) and H-BR (67-43), but the Cru are tough to count out whenever they take the floor at Bader with a title on the line.

If things played out chalk and the two top seeds meet Friday for the title, it would be a rubber game between the Royals (66-62 winners over Newark on Dec. 28) and the Norsemen (67-64 winners on Jan. 28).