Jarrel Albea wasn’t going to let a potentially serious injury stop him on perhaps the final leg of his journey as a Johnsburg Skyhawk basketball player.

So the senior guard swallowed some ibuprofen, iced his injured left wrist, wrapped it and told coach Mike Toussaint that he was playing in Monday night’s Class 2A Sterling Supersectional against Peoria Manual.

“We thought he broke his wrist Friday night [against Rockford Lutheran in the Mendota Sectional final],” Toussaint said. “He’s a warrior.”

Albea scored a pair of baskets in the first quarter and had the Skyhawks even at 11-all after he used a Euro step to score on a drive and draw a foul. But Manual answered with a 12-point run and never relinquished the lead in a 75-41 win that ended Johnsburg’s best season since it went to state in 2003.

“There wasn’t a chance I was sitting out this game,” said Albea, who refused an X-ray of his wrist after the sectional final because he feared the doctor would tell him he wouldn’t be able to play in his team’s next game. “It could have been the last time I tied the shoes up in my high school career.”

Toussaint has praised his seniors throughout the season, and that group includes Albea. He grew up in Zion and played lower-level ball for Zion-Benton his freshman year before he and his family moved to what he called “the lovely town of Johnsburg.”

He found a program that loved him, he said, and a group of fellow hoops-loving guys who embraced him like he was one of their own.

“They accepted me as if I were a guy who was with them since elementary school,” Albea said. “They said to me that I was one of their brothers.”

Albea and Jayce Schmitt started the past three seasons on varsity for Johnsburg. They and their teammates were aware of the history they made in helping the Skyhawks (24-12) not only win a sectional title but post their most wins since finishing 27-3 in 2010.

“Fun ride,” said senior Ashton Stern, who scored seven points, knocking down a pair of first-half 3-pointers. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else. I was blessed to be a part of the group. We made it this far, so there’s nothing to hang our heads about.”

Manual (23-9), which will play Unity (33-2) at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in a state semifinal at State Farm Center in Champaign, accelerated the end to Johnsburg’s season by putting on a shooting exhibition.

The Rams shot 12 of 18 in the opening quarter to grab a 26-12 lead, then made 5 of 7 shots in the second and went into halftime up 39-26. Josh Kaunas (five points) sank two free throws with 26 seconds left in the half, only to see Manual’s Tahj Tolliver hit a runner in the lane with four seconds left.

“We were very shocked by how they shot the ball,” said Schmitt, who led Johnsburg with 11 points and seven rebounds. “We just were not expecting that.”

Manual didn’t let up after halftime, using a 16-1 run to take a 58-27 lead midway through the third. The Rams repeatedly beat the Skyhawks down the floor in transition off turnovers or rebounds, and kept making shots (10 of 16).

Guard Reginald Postlewaite led Manual with a game-high 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting, and the Rams boasted four players in double figures.

“This team just shot lights out,” Toussaint said of Manual. “We watched five or six games on them. They did not shoot like that. So either they got all new players or they got hot. What are you going to do?”

Trey Toussaint added nine points and made one of Johnsburg’s six 3-pointers. Like Stern, Schmitt sank two, while Ethan Smith made one down the stretch in a running-clock fourth quarter.

“They’re very fast and a physical team,” said Schmitt, who fouled out with 5:16 left in the fourth. “We struggle against that stuff, and we just folded under the pressure.”

When it ended, no Skyhawk hung his head.

“At the beginning of the year we would have never thought this,” Mike Toussaint said of his team advancing to a supersectional. “It was a special year. They deserved everything they got.”

For Albea, the pain, both emotionally and physically, hadn’t sunk in yet.

“Adrenaline was the best medicine [for the wrist],” said Albea, who finished with six points and three offensive rebounds. “I couldn’t even feel it during the game. I’ll feel it afterward, but it’ll be fine.”