There are no superpower Class 2A girls basketball teams in the area like two-time defending state champ Byron the last two years.
But neither is there a big power standing in the way of Winnebago and Byron, the top two seeds in the Winnebago Regional, which begins Monday.
“We certainly won’t have the best record,” said Winnebago coach Judy Krause, whose Indians are 13-11 (4-4 in the Big Northern). “No one coming out of our regional has a great record. It’s different than last year when Byron was head and shoulders above everyone else.”
Winnebago had won only two regional titles in 19 years before winning back-to-back titles the last two years. And then running into Byron at sectionals. This time, No. 2 Winnebago (14-13) is seeded to meet No. 3 Byron (17-11) in Friday’s regional final.
But whoever wins won’t see a state-ranked team at next week’s sectionals. And could get to the state semifinals without playing a single ranked team: No. 8 Chicago Marshall (15-7) is the only state-ranked team in the entire supersectional.
The sectional semifinal would probably be against Spring Valley Hall (21-6), a team Byron beat 52-51 earlier this month, and the sectional favorite is an Elgin Harvest Christian team that beat Winnebago 63-53 earlier but is playing in Class 2A for the first time after taking fourth in the state in 1A last year and has to travel two and a half hours to a regional at Port Byron Riverdale. If it wins there, Harvest Christian would travel two hours to the sectional at Manlius Bureau Valley.
“Isn’t that amazing; absolutely amazing,” Krause said. “The IHSA should have looked at that one a little differently, but thank goodness for us. Having a regional at home is a nice one for our kids.”
Winnebago hopes to be peaking with two starters recently returned to the lineup. Senior guard Malia Shank, on varsity since her freshman year, missed 16 games with a shoulder injury. Kiah Garrigan, perhaps the Indians' best player, missed seven games with a foot injury.
“We are all new to getting back as a team, but we’re finally getting there,” Krause said.
Byron, which graduated its entire starting lineup from last year, including a quarter of three-year starters, has played a brutal schedule. At the time the seeding was done, five of the teams that had beaten Byron had already won 20 games and three others had won 18. Battle-tested Byron then surprisingly won the Big Northern with a 9-1 record, but was someone seeded behind a Winnebago team that went 4-5 in the BNC.
“We’ve played a lot tougher schedule than Winnebago, but they played the injury card and got the sympathy vote,” Byron coach Eric Yerly said. “We have a little extra motivation being a 3 seed. We are not used to being a 3. The kids will be fired up to prove everybody wrong.”
Yerly said he doesn’t know how much Byron’s tough schedule will help the Tigers in the playoffs.
“Last year we went through it too, but we won those games so it gave us confidence,” he said. “This year we didn’t win any of those tough games. We lost them all.”
Byron shuffled its roster a little after Christmas, reducing its rotation from nine players to seven and calling up freshman Paige Bukoski, the daughter of former Stillman Valley, Forreston and Hononegah head coach Tim Bukoski.
“Paige gave us an outside threat from 3 we were lacking. She is a natural shooter and well-coaching growing up,” Yerly said. “If we can make shots, we’ll beat anybody. Our defense has been solid all year.”
Matt Trowbridge: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com; @matttrowbridge