Lady Vikings ready for Byron Adventure

By Chris Johnson

REPORTER

The post-season is a few days away for North Boone and the Lady Vikings are hoping they can put together a plan for a new win streak.

On Thursday, Jan. 19, North Boone topped Harvard 57-42. A day later, they defeated Rockford Christian 47-29.

Since the win over the Lady Royal Lions, North Boone has slipped as they work through a four-game losing streak.

On Thursday, Jan. 26, the Lady Vikings fell to Big Northern leader-chaser Rockford Lutheran 58-18. Before that, they ran into Richmond-Burton and Oregon.

The current streak began as a result of bad timing. North Boone hit Pecatonica on a bad day and fell 57-30.

The Lady Vikings currently are playing playoff-caliber competition and have been trying to hang in games to the best of their ability. They just haven’t had the firepower to do it recently. Now, the post-season outlook sets up with chances and a bite of reality.

The Lady Vikings know where they will play to open the IHSA Class 2A State Basketball Playoffs. They also know who they face in the first round and what is waiting for them after the game.

Sometimes knowing what is waiting isn’t always the best way to approach a situation. For North Boone, they know they will play from the eight-seed location and will have to upset four-seed Oregon in the regional semi-final if they want to move on.

If they lose to the Lady Hawks, the winter season is over and the attention can shift to softball and track-and-field.

If they defeat the Oregon Lady Hawks on Tuesday, Feb. 7, North Boone will move on to the regional championship game and play the defending Class 2A State Champion Byron Lady Tigers.

The only way this can’t happen is if either nine-seed Rockford Christian, which is 3-14 on the season or 10-seed South Beloit, which is 4-10 this year, pull off the biggest upset in recent history and remove Byron form the post-season in its first game in the 2017 version. That’s going to be tough to do. Byron’s only losses this year came to 4A formidable-foe Rockford Boylan and six-time defending Class 3A Champion Lombard-Montini.

There is a chance the Byron Tigers will win it all again this year or at least put themselves in a position to advance to the super-sectional round at Monmouth College to play on Monday, Feb. 20. The step after that is Normal, Redbird Arena and a possible repeat moment of familiarity with the state championship trophy.