Subscribe by RSS
Rough waters greet Vikings on post-season entry
There isn’t much to be done as the North Boone Vikings boys’ basketball team prepares to embark into the IHSA Class 2A State Tournament. It’s been a rough year for North Boone, and they were notified of what kind of a journey waits for them, if they want to fight into the early games of the 2017 post-season.
The Vikings received the lowest-seed designation by the IHSA Selection Committee, and that means there is going to be a rough patch directly in front of them, when they set sail into the second season. Every win will be viewed as an upset.
North Boone wrapped up the Big Northern season with a 0-9 mark. They won over Harvard but suffered losses throughout the remainder of the winter campaign. Their 1-19 overall record put them into an opening night position with hope still for another night.
The 11-seed Vikings will face the 10-seed Oregon Hawks on Monday, Feb. 20 with tip-off scheduled for 7 p.m. at Rockford Christian High School.
Oregon could provide the only shot for a possible win into the post-season, unless fortune shifts quickly.
The Hawks were one win better than North Boone in the Big Northern race this season. They were three wins greater for the year.
At the same time, they still fell to the same teams throughout the season that the Vikings did. They are beatable and North Boone has to realize that when they tip-off on Monday.
Oregon’s offense is more potent than North Boone’s. The Hawks in 26 games this season scored over 1,100 points. During a stretch of 20 games, North Boone scored 825.
Each defense is porous. The Hawks gave up, on average, 62 points a game. The Vikings were much worse off in that capacity as well. Opponents averaged over 73 points a night.
With the way the teams match up on paper, the closest margin that could be achieved by North Boone in the Class 2A post-season and the best chance for a win based on the final Big Northern standings will be against Oregon.
There could have been one other shot for North Boone, if things worked out differently. The Vikings weren’t the only team that was winless in the Big Northern this season. They shared that distinction with the Stillman Valley Cardinals. They were 0-9 in Big Northern play and 3-21 on the season.
North Boone wasn’t given the chance to match up with Stillman Valley this year. They are in different classes. The Cardinals may find themselves in even more trouble from the start than North Boone could. The large-school playoffs start next week and Stillman Valley joins only one other Big Northern member as it begins playing in the larger-school 3A Tournament.
If the upset occurs and the 11-seed Vikings shoot down the 10-seed Hawks, they will move directly into the path of the regular season Big Northern Champion, Rockford Christian, in the Regional Semi-Final. The Royal Lions entry into the post-season begins at home on Tuesday, Feb. 21.
If Oregon falls, North Boone will join Rockford Christian for the right to do battle to see which team will move on to face three-seed Byron in the Rockford Christian Regional Final. That is if Byron isn’t upset by six-seed South Beloit in its own opener on Tuesday night, Feb. 21.
