Scouting Class 4A NIU supersectional
Geneva (32-1) vs. Rockford East (33-2)
Game time: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at NIU Convocation Center
Road to supersectional: Geneva beat No. 17 Hinsdale Central 66-56 and No. 8 Wheaton Warrenville South 45-38 to win the Metea Valley regional and Lyons Township 54-41 and Downers Grove North 75-50 to win the Bartlett sectional; Rockford East beat Guilford 56-42 and Auburn 68-35 to win the Rockford East regional and St. Charles North 51-46 and South Elgin 64-54 to win the Rock Valley College sectional.
Outlook: Geneva seeks its second trip to the state finals in five years. Led by senior point guard Jack McDonald, 6-foot-5 senior shooting guard Mitch Mascari and 6-6 senior forward Kross Garth, the DuKane Conference champs broke the school record of 30 wins set by state qualifiers in 1963 and 2014. The offense is paced by McDonald, who scores 16.6 points and dishes an area-best 5.8 assists per game. He piled up 36 points in a regional win over Hinsdale Central and 29 against Downers North in the sectional title game. Mascari (14 ppg) makes 44 percent of his attempts from 3-point range (74 of 170) and is unafraid to shoot from well beyond the arc. Garth averages 8.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game while 6-4 junior Josh Preston contributes 6.7 points and 3.7 rebounds. Senior guard Garret Sneed is a 33-percent 3-point shooter (18 of 55). The Vikings are one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the area. Senior guard Ben Johlie shoots 89 percent from the line (32 of 36), McDonald 84 percent (154 of 183) and Mascari 82 percent (83 of 101). "Their point guard is absolutely tremendous," Rockford East coach Roy Sackmaster said of McDonald. "They are 32-1 for a reason. We are going to have to play a lot smarter and we're going to have to do a lot of the little things a lot better than we did against South Elgin if we're going to play against a quality team like that." Rockford East won the NIC-10 Conference for the first time since 1981. The program seeks its eighth state berth and first since 1978. The E-Rabs, athletic at every position, rebound and shoot well from the perimeter. They won the rebounding battle against South Elgin 43-27, led by 12 rebounds from guard Sha'Den Clanton, a 6-foot-6 senior who scored 14 points in each sectional victory. East's 17 offensive rebounds against South Elgin translated to 14 second-chance points. "My big concern is they really get on the offensive boards," Geneva coach Scott Hennig said. "Our mantra is going to be one and done." Senior guard Chris Burnell (6-3) delivered 16 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in the sectional title game. Junior guard Sincere Parker (6-3) is the key shooter. He made 3 of 11 attempts from 3-point range against South Elgin and scored 13 points. The rest of his team shot 2 of 4 from that distance. "Parker has Mitch's range," Hennig said. "He's definitely a high-major kid. They're just so athletic and they score at such a high rate so quickly. We're going to really have to be careful as a staff because you could blink and it could be a 10-0 run. We're going to have to run our offense efficiently and limit them to tough shots." Opponents shoot 27 percent from 3-point range against Geneva.
Advancement: Winner advances to a Class 4A semifinal at the Peoria Civic Center on Friday at 5:30 p.m. against the winner of the Sears Centre supersectional between Evanston (30-4) and Stevenson (27-5).