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Hall, St. Bede to open regional play at home: BCR boys basketball notebook

Hall's Braden Curran lets go of a three-point jump shot over Princeton's Jack Oester on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 at Princeton High School.

The postseason path has been set for Bureau County boys basketball teams.

Bureau Valley will be hosting a 1A regional, but to get home, the No. 11th-seeded Storm (10-15) will have to upset No. 6 Fulton (11-17) in quarterfinal play on Monday. No. 3 Orion (23-7) is the top seed in the Bureau Valley Regional.

St. Bede (15-13) drew the No. 5 seed in the 1A Serena Regional and an opening-round game at home against No. 12 Putnam County (9-20) at 6 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 13.

Also Monday in the Serena Regional No. 13 DePue (5-19) will play at No. 4 Dwight (15-12).

No. 14 LaMoille (3-21) was assigned to the 1A Woodland Regional and a 6 p.m. Monday date at No. 3 Newark (15-14).

In 2A, the Hall and Princeton boys were both assigned to distant regionals, but the Red Devils (13-17) will get to have the comforts of home for starters. They drew the No. 7 seed and a home date against regional host Rockridge (4-21), the 10 seed, at 6 p.m. Monday.

The Hall-Rockridge winner will meet No. 2 Riverdale (21-8) at 6 p.m. for semifinal play at Rockridge.

Princeton (5-24) was assigned the No. 10 seed in the Farmington Regional and a quarterfinal date at No. 9 Monmouth-Roseville (10-17). Their winner heads to Farmington to face No. 1 Sherrard (19-7) at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 26.

Mendota (25-5) drew the No. 1 seed for the 2A Rock Falls Regional, awaiting the winner of the Feb. 23 game between No. 9 Aurora Central Catholic at No. 8 Genoa-Kingston at 6 p.m. on Feb. 25. The Trojans will be playing to make it home for the Mendota Sectional.

Heitzler nets 1,000th point

Annawa senior Maddux Heitzler became the 16th 1,000-point scorer in the history of Braves basketball. Tanner Carlson, who scored 2,045 points from 2004-08, is the all-time scoring leader.

Bob VanKerrbroeck (1963-66) of Mineral was the first at 1,234, ranked now at No. 7. Annawan head coach Alex Coppejans (1,194) is No. 9 on the list, and assistant Ben Buresh (1,123) is 11th.

Other area players to score their 1,000th career point this season include Princeton senior Camryn Driscoll, St. Bede senior Lili McClain, Bureau Valley junior Libby Endress and Mendota brothers Aden and Cole Tillman.

Kevin Hieronymus

Kevin Hieronymus

Kevin has been sports editor of the BCR since 1986 and is Sports Editor of Putnam County Record. Was previously sports editor of the St. Louis Daily News and a regular contributor for the St. Louis Cardinals Magazine. He is a member of the IBCA and Illinois Valley Hall of Fames. He is one of 4 sportswriters from his tiny hometown Atlanta, IL