Sectional semifinal has St. Edward on brink of history
The St. Edward boys basketball team can stamp itself among the most successful in program history with one more victory.
The Green Wave (24-5) face Fieldcrest in a Class 2A El Paso-Gridley sectional semifinal on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
A 25th win would put the 2014-15 team in elite company. Since the program's inception in 1944-45, only three St. Edward squads have won 25 games in a season: coach Bob Fuller's 25-3 Class A state qualifier in 1971-72; coach Jack McKiel's 25-2 regional title team in 1972-73; and coach Joe Tullo's 25-6 Class A state qualifier in 1986-87.
"It should be fun," St. Edward coach P.J. White said. "Either way we have an opportunity to win a sectional game, which hasn't happened in many years. I'm proud of this team. One thing I know is they will fight until the final second so we'll see how it goes."
Chemistry and familiarity are team strengths. Most of the regulars have been teammates for seven years.
"We've been playing together since we were in sixth grade," senior guard Gino Domel said during the regional round. "We just want to keep playing together as long as we can."
St. Edward survived against IC Catholic Prep to win the Lisle regional 41-40, thanks to the clutch play of three seniors. Nick Duffy (6-foot-4) came up with a huge blocked shot in the final seconds, Domel sank the winning free throw and senior guard Jake French deflected ICCP's final inbounds pass to a sprawling Domel to seal the win.
Duffy is the team's leading scorer with 15.7 ppg, followed by French (12.1), sophomore guard Kelvin Cortez-Harvey (10.7) and Domel (9.2). French leads the team in assists (4.2), Duffy is the leading rebounder (6.7) and shot blocker (42) and Cortez-Harvey has a team-best 72 steals compared to just 33 turnovers.
Fieldcrest returns to sectional play for the seventh time since 2006 and the first time since 2013, when it lost a sectional title game by a point to Monmouth-Roseville.
The Knights smothered Spring Valley Hall 50-23 to win the St. Bede regional in Peru. In that game senior guard Jackson Puetz (5-9) scored 13 points, 6-1 senior forward Ryan Barth finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds and 6-3 junior forward Matthew Modro scored 10 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, according to the Bloomington Pantagraph.
"I think they're similar to some of our conference opponents," White said. "They have a couple of 6-foot-3 guys, but not great size overall. We're hoping to matchup well with them. It should be good game.
"The tough thing is the unknown. How will we react to playing a game two and a half hours away when the school we're playing is about 10 minutes away? It's like a home game for them. Maybe we'll stop half way and relax or something."
The St. Edward-Fieldcrest winner will face the winner of Tuesday's semifinal between Reed-Custer and Illiana Christian for the sectional title on Friday at 7 p.m.
The Green Wave seek their first berth in a sectional title game since the 1996-97 season.
Local tie: Former Bartlett and ISU softball standout Elizabeth Kay is the first-year varsity softball coach at Fieldcrest.