By Matt Nestor
Sports Columnist

Freeport hits five threes in the first quarter and Luke Norman scored 33 points in trying to single-handedly carry his Pretzels into the IHSA Class 3A regional finals.

But Belvidere North’s Brandon Schwebke countered with 25, and also got help from teammates Jake Boxleitner and Alex Gomez, who scored 12 and 11 apiece, and the Blue Thunder overcame a 20-16 first-quarter deficit to prevail 65-59.

“We’ve had deficits we’ve had to come back from,” Belvidere North Head Coach Darrin Sisk said. “Tonight, we were able to fight back, and the thing I was most proud of is we’ve been on a losing streak and it would have been an easy time for kids to put their head down. But they fought back, they executed and they listened.”

Belvidere North fought back from their first-quarter deficit to gain a 3-point lead at the half. But the Pretzels fought back, gaining a 38-37 lead before the Blue Thunder responded with a 6-0 run to take a 5-point lead into the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter is when foul trouble caught up with the Pretzels. Several players, including Norman, picked up their fourth foul early in the quarter, and Belvidere North was able to take advantage on the offensive end.

“The biggest thing was Alex Gomez down the stretch when Norman was in foul trouble,” Sisk said. “We were able to go to Alex four straight times and he couldn’t do anything about it because it was way too early in the game to pick up your fifth foul.”

Schwebke helped the Blue Thunder put the game away late. After 10 first-half points, he shot 12-14 at the free-throw line down the stretch to help ice the game. Sisk said he was confident with Schwebke at the line to ice the game. And the free throws were needed with Norman playing as well as he did. He hit four threes and seven free throws of his own as the Pretzels made their comeback attempt.

“It doesn’t matter what we do to Norman,” Sisk said. “He’s a great shooter and when the game is on the line, you can count on that kid.”

In the earlier game at Belvidere North, the East E-Rabs got double-doubles from Alonte Holliday and Steve McNease as they wore down and defeated Belvidere by a score of 84-63.

The senior Holliday scored 19 points to go with his 11 rebounds, while McNease scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, mostly on the offensive end of the floor.

“This is our strength all year, crashing the glass,” East Head Coach Roy Sackmaster said. “It’s almost our best offense sometimes: just throw it against the glass, go in there and play volleyball with it and go get put-backs.”

East started off slow, trailing by 1 point at the end of the first quarter before gaining a 9-point lead at the half. But the defense, led by Javon Henderson, who also scored 14 points, picked up the pace in the second half.

“In the second half, we were a little bit better defensively,” Sackmaster said. “In the first half, they were making some nice plays, but we didn’t have that urgency like we did in the second half.”

East will now play host Belvidere North in the finals of their Class 3A regional. For Sackmaster, he hopes his team will be focused with the short turnaround.

“We have one day of preparation,” he said. “The challenge with this team is our maturity and how we are going to handle the success. We have this, it’s a good win and a good feeling. Can we put that behind us and say we have unfinished business, or are we going to be content?”

For Belvidere North, the game plan will be simple. They will have to play big and try to keep the E-Rabs from attacking the offensive glass.

“The key for Friday night against East is rebounding,” Sisk said. “We have to keep them off the boards. If they get one shot and we can keep them off the boards, we’re going to be OK.”

In the Class 4A regional at Jefferson, the Boylan Titans withstood a late charge by Hononegah to knock off the second-seeded Indians by a final score of 66-64.

For Boylan, it was revenge for a late-season loss to Hononegah that ended up costing Boylan the 2 seed despite finishing second in the conference.

Jason Painter scored 18 points, 12 of which came in the first half. His battery mate, Armani Flannigan, scored 18 as well, picking up 13 of his points in the second half.

Chris Miller also overcame a slow first half for Boylan to finish with 13 points.

For Hononegah, senior Chase Robinson scored 21 points to lead the way for the Indians, while Carlos Hendrix scored 11 points.

Boylan will move on to play top seed Auburn in the finals of the Class 4A regional at Jefferson Friday, March 4. The winner will move on to the sectional at Algonquin Jacobs.