The IHSA Class 1A Amboy Regional tips off Tuesday and Wednesday evening with the semifinals, each pitting a DeKalb County boys basketball team from the Little Ten Conference against an Ottawa/Streator area ballclub from the Tri-County.

Friday’s championship could be all Little Ten, all Tri-County or another mixed-conference head-to-head ... and any and all potential matchups seem perfectly possible in what looks to be a balanced four-team field featuring both No. 1s and both No. 2s in the sectional seedings.

Play opens Tuesday at 7 p.m. when TCC tied-for-second, 1A Serena Regional champion and No. 1-seeded Marquette Academy (24-8) faces LTC conference champion, 1A Hinckley-Big Rock Regional champion and No. 2-seeded Hinckley-Big Rock (23-8). The two have not met this season.

The second semifinal comes Wednesday when Little Ten third-place finisher, 1A Somonauk Regional champion and No. 1-seeded Indian Creek (25-6) takes on Tri-County Conference champion, 1A Woodland Regional champion and No. 2-seeded Woodland (25-9). Indian Creek rallied to defeat Woodland 49-41 in the teams’ lone matchup this season back in late December, also on a neutral court at Seneca’s Shipyard Showdown.

Before the season began, the Warriors – led by electric sharpshooter Nolan Price, fellow seniors Noah Decker and Jaron Follmer, and sophomore Nate Berry – had the goal of snapping their program’s long championship droughts. They’ve crossed two off the list, winning a conference title for the first time since 1979 and then last Friday with a win over Newark in which the Warriors led from 24 seconds in until the final horn capturing its first regional championship plaque since 1989.

“It’s been a long time,” the Warriors’ fifth starter, junior post Brezdyn Simons, said, “but we’ve strived for it every day. Before the seniors leave, we wanted to put numbers on that wall. We got the conference and now the regional. Why not just keep adding?

“We’re just going to keep fighting. No matter who we go up against, I don’t want any other guys on that court with me. This a great group of guys, and I wouldn’t be surprised and none of us would be surprised if we went for a nice run here.”

Woodland won its lone sectional title in 1972, becoming Class A’s Cinderella story with a surprise appearance at state. This winter’s Warriors have three wins to go to get back, but their coach wouldn’t be surprised.

“This is just a special group of kids,” Woodland coach Connor Kaminke said. “You’ve got a few seniors in there, you mix in a junior and mix in a sophomore and all the reserve guys who show up every day and work their tails off. It’s a complete-program effort, and I’m just so proud of everyone and so proud to be a Woodland Warrior.”

The Marquette Crusaders survived a close contest over rival St. Bede in the 1A Serena Regional title game to claim their first regional title since 2019. While they haven’t played HBR yet this season, the teams have run around in the same scheduling and tournament circles to be more than vaguely familiar with each other. In fact, it was the Royals who ended Marquette’s season in the regional semifinals last winter.

The Crusaders have played like a different team this season, however, especially since Alec Novotney’s late-December return to a lineup that had already proven dangerous led by playmakers such as Griffin Dobberstein, Luke McCullough, Matt Graham and Blayden Cassel.

“We have a game plan,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said, “but almost always in these types of games you have to adjust on the fly, between quarters and at halftime. I’ve watched so much film, and so have my assistants, so I think there are things we are going to be able to do.

“We have to do a good job of guarding at the 3-point line, because they like to penetrate and kick. Our last three games have been against teams that are similar in that way, and we’ve done a pretty good job with that, but it’s going to have to be something we do well again on Tuesday.”

Indian Creek is 3-1 against the teams in the sectional, with one win over each of the other three. HBR is 1-1. Marquette and Woodland are both 1-2.