For the first time in four years, girls basketball powerhouses Bolingbrook and Whitney Young (Chicago) will not meet in the Illinois Class 4A championship game.
Instead, they‘ll meet one night earlier. Arguably, the winner of Friday's semifinal-round game Friday at Illinois State University will produce the state champion, although Maine South (Park Ridge) (27-8) or Zion-Benton (26-6) will take their shot at the title in Saturday night‘s 8:15 p.m. championship game.
Bolingbrook, the two-time defending state champion, has a lineup that includes three top-shelf Division I recruits: 5-foot-7 senior guard Ariel Massengale (Tennessee), a two-time Team USA selection; 6-foot senior forward Taylor Tuck (Illinois) and 6-2 junior forward Morgan Tuck (Connecticut). Taylor Tuck averages 20.7 points per game and Massengale has 176 assists.
Video of Ariel Massengale
The Raiders (27-2) are ranked No. 3 in the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 girls basketball rankings presented by the Army National Guard and their only losses came to No. 1 Brea Olinda (Brea, Calif.) in double overtime and to No. 2 Mater Dei (Santa Ana, Calif.) in the Nike Tournament of Champions.
Whitney Young (26-2), which is led by Michigan State recruit Kiana Johnson and DePaul recruit Chanise Jenkins, also has not lost in-state this season. The Dolphins have won 18 straight since a loss in December to Inkster (Mich.). They won the 2008 state title with a 54-45 triumph over Bolingbrook, but lost the last two title games to the Raiders. Monday, Young slammed 30-game winner Marian Catholic, 74-52, in a 4A Supersectional, as point guard Jenkins scored 19 points.
MaxPreps Illinois girls basketball playoff brackets
2A/1A GIRLS: QUINCY NOTRE DAME, WINCHESTER WEST CENTRAL WIN TITLES
Kassidy Gengenbacher, a sophomore, helped Notre Dame (Quincy) and the Gengenbacher family gain some revenge on Bloomington Central. Gengenbacher scored 22 points, leading Notre Dame to a 75-64 win over Bloomington Central in the Class 2A girls basketball championship game.
Kassidy's sister Karlee, a 2010 Notre Dame graduate, scored a team-high 25 points in the 2010 2A title game, only to have the Lady Raiders fall to Central, 64-58. Since then, Notre Dame (31-1) has lost just once, to St. Louis Incarnate Word, and finished the 2010-11 season with seven consecutive wins in the state tournament. Central had a 42-game winning streak halted.
In the Class 1A title game, West Central co-op (Winchester) held Hanover Ridge Ridge-Scales Mound to just two points in the second quarter and 11 points in the second half. Tiffany King scored 11 points and had four blocked shots, as West Central won its first state championship in girls basketball with a 29-26 win.
FIVE BIG PERFORMANCES
* Connecticut recruit Ryan Boatright of East (Aurora) finished off his home-court, regular-season finale in style, scoring 33 points in a 63-59 victory over Batavia. The Tomcats could play at home again March 8 because they are host next week to a Class 4A sectional in the Illinois boys basketball tournament. East Aurora (23-5) defeated Plainfield North 67-54 in the Bolingbrook Regional semifinals Tuesday, and will play in the title game Friday night.
MaxPreps Illinois boys basketball playoff brackets
* Malayna Johnson scored a team-high 14 points Monday, leading defending Class 3A champion Montini (Lombard) to a 64-41 Supersectional girls basketball win over Grayslake Central. The Broncos (34-1) will meet Springfield (31-2) in the 3A semifinals at 12:15 p.m. Friday at Illinois State University in Normal. A Montini victory, coupled with a Country Club Hillcrest (28-2) win over Chicago Marshall (22-7), would set up a rematch of the 2010 title game.
* Octavia Brown scored 19 points in a Class 3A 71-43 win over Riverside-Brookfield, leading the St. Joseph (Westchester) girls basketball team to its first sectional title. The girls basketball program is in its fifth year at the former all-boys school. The Chargers finished their season at 21-12, following a 46-37 loss to Chicago Marshall in the SuperSectionals.
* Eddie Alcantra of Hales Franciscan (Chicago) scored 21 points, and had eight rebounds and eight steals, leading the Spartans to a 78-49 victory over Chicago Christian for a Class 2A regional title. "We are hungry for a state championship and we plan to will ourselves to wins," Alcantara told Sun-Times Media.
* Brian Howard hit a shot with 2 seconds left in overtime, lifting St. Ignatius (Chicago) to a 71-69 win over Mount Carmel in a Chicago Catholic League game featuring University of Illinois recruits Nnanna Egwu (24 points) of St. Ignatius and Tracy Abrams (20 points) of Mount Carmel.
STORYLINES AROUND CHICAGOLAND:
* Massengale, a senior guard at two-time Illinois Class 4A champion Bolingbrook and a two-time member of the U-16 and U-17 Team USA squads, was named to play in the 20th annual Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) All-America Game. The game will be played April 2 at Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the site of this year's NCAA championship game on April 5. Massengale will also play in the McDonald's All-America Game on March 30 in Chicago.
* Jeremy Gold, head football coach the past four seasons at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Mich., was hired as the new head coach at Morgan Park (Chicago). Gold led Pioneer to the Michigan state playoffs each of the last three seasons and a Southeastern Conference title in 2008. He played football at Central Michigan University, and was an assistant coach at Northern Iowa, Grand Valley State and Wayne State in Michigan. Gold replaces 17-year coach Lexie Spurlock, who was surprisingly fired after leading the Mustangs to a 10-3 record in 2010 and 9-3 in 2009.
* New Trier (Winnetka) won its fourth boys swimming and diving state title in six years, and 21st championship overall, as it dunked the competition in the one-class state championships held at New Trier. The Trevians topped 2010 state champion and runner-up Naperville Central by 54 points. New Trier won the meet by having large numbers of swimmers place in multiple events. Its only individual winner was Max Grodecki in the 100-yard freestyle. "Illinois is one of the best states for swimming, so this is bragging rights over a lot of kids in the country," senior swimmer C.J. Smith (second place in 500 free) told the Chicago Tribune.
* Montini (Lombard) (26-6) won its fourth consecutive state wrestling title in Class 2A and Glenbard North (Carol Stream) (25-4) knocked off defending state champion Minooka, 31-24, to win Class 3A. Frank Baer, Dimitri Willis and Ross Ferraro were among Montini's winners, completing a season in which they also won individual state titles. Glenbard North got to the 3A final by defeating Sandburg, the state's No. 1-ranked team, in the semifinals, 28-25.
Paul Bowker, an online and newspaper sports journalist for 25 years and the author of two Major League Baseball books, covers the Chicago area for MaxPreps. He may be reached at bowkerpaul1@aol.com