March 10, 2010 - 498 words
'Canes win regional
JASON LEARMAN - The Woodstock Independent
| Hurricanes | ........
56 | Basketball
Mar. 5, 2010 |
| Wolves | ........
52 |
 |
Tim Speciale Marian Central's Karl Steiger, left, Danny Noonan, center, and C.J. Price, right, celebrate with teammates following their regional championship Friday at Woodstock North. | Jimmy Carter was president. The original "Star Wars" was released and "Saturday Night Fever" swept the country. 1977 was a long time ago, and it marked the last time the Marian Central Hurricanes won a regional basketball title.
Thirty-three years later, the 'Canes (20-9) beat a determined Prairie Ridge team, 56-52, in a thrilling overtime affair Friday to capture the IHSA Class 3A Woodstock North Regional championship.
This was "March Madness" at its finest, but the road to Peoria doesn't get any easier.
The Hurricanes will play Oswego at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, in the Hampshire Sectional semifinal game. Oswego (22-6), the 2009 IHSA 3A state runner-up, advanced to the sectional by beating Aurora Central Catholic 59-46 to win the Aurora Central regional.
"It feels good," said Marian Central head coach Curtis Price. "After 33 years, the school needs this. The kids are going to enjoy this all weekend, but our job is not done yet. We've still got a long way to go."
Aggressive defense on both sides led to a high number of fouls. Prairie Ridge had four players foul out, sending the Hurricanes to the line to shoot 49 free throws. Marian failed to take advantage, converting only 25 (52 percent) of them and keeping the game a lot closer than it should have been.
"We get like this sometimes where the ball just doesn't want to go in," Price said. Maybe we were pressing a little bit too much. Maybe we were thinking about it too much. I don't know, but we're definitely going to fix that before Tuesday."
Senior guard Danny Noonan overcame a 4-for-15 shooting night and a harsh Wolves student section to lead the Hurricanes with 16 points. Noonan, who lives near Prairie Ridge High School, was the victim of relentless harassment throughout the game, which, he admitted, got to him early.
"Tonight was just a very personal game for me," Noonan said. "We don't like each other. I struggled early and they got in my head. They had a good student section tonight."
Despite his own struggles from the charity stripe, where he was 7-for-12 on the night, Noonan came up big in overtime, hitting two clutch free throws to ice the game for the 'Canes with only six seconds left.
"We tried (talking to Noonan) but he had to work his way out of it," said Price. "It was nice to see that he was the kid on the free-throw line making the two free throws to put the game out of reach."
Junior center Ben Krol kept Marian Central in the game all night, with 14 points and 21 rebounds, several keeping the offense alive on missed Hurricane free throws. "At the end, I think we had a little too much talent, and they ran out of gas," said Krol. "This is an amazing feeling."
"You've got to give Ben Krol credit," said Price. "He did a great job on the rebounds. He played out of his mind."
Junior guard Jake Everly added 12 points for the Hurricanes.
|
Advertisement:
|
|
