The Week That Was February 8 through February 14

The 2015-16 Basketball Season is not over for everyone, yet. We have Senior Day for our Boys Basketball team this week. The Boys Fresh/Soph and JV also have culminating events this upcoming week. But for Middle School Boys and Girls Basketball and Girls Upper School Basketball the end of the season happened last week.

Since the first of the year, North Shore Country Day has hosted or played in 93 basketball games. Last week we had 17 games -- not to mention also one track meet. The odd thing about basketball season at this point in the year to me is when the end of the season comes how quickly and suddenly it seems to happen. I think that is because for weeks now our teams and staff have been always thinking about the next game. Now, of our nine basketball teams this winter, only three are still playing this week.

So it was a bittersweet last week. Here's what happened.

Regional Final Tip-Off

The week of six game days started on Monday, February 8th with our Middle School Girls Purple and White teams traveling to Chiaravalle School. They came home with two wins. At North Shore the day started with our Fresh/Soph team playing another Evanston school, Beacon Academy. Earlier in the season, the Fresh/Soph lost to Beacon in a close game, but this time the Raiders prevailed. After the Beacon game was over, our staff prepared for the quarterfinal games of the IHSA Girls Basketball Regional Tournament we would host over three evenings. The first game featured a tight battle between Ida Crown and Rochelle Zell Jewish High School. Ida Crown won by a point in an exciting game. The second quarterfinal game featured St. Benedicts vs. Roycemore. Jessi Wunder the coach of Roycemore is one of the best coaches I know, but St. Benedicts had little problem defeating the Roycemore Griffins 37-16. Although there were five games on the day, the Raiders were 3-0. 

On Tuesday February 9th, the Middle School Boys ended their season with a trip to Francis Parker School. The White Boys team continued their improvement with a win over Parker. This was their 3rd win a row for this group of novice players. The Purple team had a close loss. At North Shore, we had the second night of the IHSA Girls Regional Tournament and hosted two Semi-Final Games. The first game featured the number one seed Luther North College Prep Wildcats and Ida Crown. Luther North steadily pulled away to a commanding 55-17 win. In the second game, the Raiders played St. Benedicts. It was a back and forth affair with St. Bens taking an early 16-14 lead and even late in the 3rd period the teams were tied 28-28. But the Raiders pulled away in the 4th period and won 49-40. For the day, North Shore teams were 2-1 and 5-1 on the week. 

We took the day off from the IHSA tournament on Wednesday February 10th so the two finalists Luther North and North Shore could prepare. But not the day off from other games. Our boys JV and Varsity teams traveled to Northridge Prep. Playing at Northridge is one of the tougher gyms to play in. Although our JV team won, our Varsity team lost to NRP 37-25. At home our Middle School Girls had their last game of the season. The Lab School was initially supposed to send two teams, but only sent one as they had some injuries and illness. The game was one of the most memorable of the year, though. There was not a lot of scoring, but the two teams battled and both teams had chances to win in the last seconds. The Lab School pulled away on free throws in the last two seconds. Despite the heartbreak of the last second loss, our players seemed to take it well as they had played hard throughout the season and aren't seasons supposed to end on a nail biter? We were 1-2 on the day and 6-3 on the week. 

Thursday February 11th featured the Regional Final for our girls team at 7:00 pm. Our Girls Basketball team has now made it to the Regional Final eight of the last nine years. But the Luther North team that we had to face last Thursday may have been the toughest opponent we have ever had to confront for a Regional title. The Luther North team was quick, consisting of a number of girls who were state sprint relay champs last spring and strong. And our Raiders were a little depleted. Despite the fact the Raiders moved the ball beautifully all night and got good looks at the basket, Luther North's superior rebounding and quickness made a significant difference especially in the 4th quarter. The final was Luther North 70 and North Shore 34. We did get a nice article in the paper the next day which you can see through this link. Overachieving North Shore Girls Basketball Team Loses In Regional Final We were 0-1 on the day and thus 6-4 on the week. A special thank you to all the workers for the tournament!

We had no school on Friday, February 12th. Teachers and administrators gathered for an inservice day. But we still had basketball. Our JV and Varsity Boys teams traveled to Elgin to finish their conference schedule. Both JV and Varsity teams won -- the Varsity score was 71-51. There are still league games to play this week, but the Varsity Boys should finish no lower than third in the conference. It looks like U-High will be the boys team ISL champions. For the day, though, our Raiders were 2-0 and now 8-4 on the week. 

A long week ended with even more excitement on Saturday, February 13th. In the morning the available members of the track team, who were not either on a Model UN or away for the long weekend, traveled to DeLaSalle Institute to compete in their first Illinois meet of the year. With only a small crew, we came away with 16 personal bests, five first places in the Boys and Girls 800m and 1600m runs as well as the Girls 55M High Hurdles and Katie Glew set a Junior class record for the 1600m run of 5:37. The team had an outstanding competitive spirit on a cold day to travel. Our boys Varsity Basketball team took their annual trip to Mason City, Illinois to participate in the St. Judes Shootout hosted by Illini Central High School. We have participated in this event now for four years after playing Illini Central in the final four of the IHSA tournament. This year we were scheduled to play the host at 7:30 pm. Like the track team, the basketball team was missing a few key players due to other commitments on the long weekend. But they played strongly losing 68-56 in the end. So we ended our week 8-5.

Sunday was unusually quiet. But I was glad to have a little quiet. We have played in or hosted 93 basketball games since the beginning of the year, and I have taken athletes back and forth from Seattle. We have used almost every day to get some practice in for one of the teams, but on this Sunday -- other than the team returning from Mason City -- no one stopped by the gym.

The upcoming week features Senior Day for our Boys Basketball team on Tuesday then culminating events for the JV and F/S boys teams. The week after the Varsity Boys enter the state tournament. Although that could extend into March, its hard to believe basketball for most players is over. But that means Spring is almost here! Remember to turn your uniform in.