Boys basketball: Wauconda holds off Prairie Ridge to win 2nd straight regional title

CRYSTAL LAKE – Wauconda’s Nick Brinias was unstoppable in the first quarter against Prairie Ridge.

The Bulldogs senior guard sank his first six shots, including three 3-pointers, rarely touching iron, scoring 15 points and pumping up his team and the visiting crowd at Friday’s Class 3A Prairie Ridge Regional final.

Wauconda needed every bit of scoring from Brinias, as the host Wolves came storming back in the second half. Trailing by 19 points at half, Prairie Ridge got hot and cut the Bulldogs’ lead to single digits by the end of the third quarter.

But time eventually ran out on the Wolves as Wauconda held off Prairie Ridge, 53-49, to secure its second consecutive regional title.

Top-seeded Wauconda advances to meet second-seeded St. Francis, which defeated Marmion Academy, 46-40, in the Marmion Academy Regional on Friday, in the Crystal Lake South Sectional semifinals at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Wauconda improved its program-best record to 25-3 with the victory. But the Bulldogs are going for a lot more.

“I think it’s endless. I think we can go as far as we want to go,” Brinias said. “We want to go to state. I think we can do it. We have so much firepower and so many good players. The only team that can beat us is us.”

The Wolves (16-15) held Brinias (game-high 22 points on 9-of-12 shooting, four 3-pointers) to only seven points over the final three quarters. Prairie Ridge, meanwhile, battled back by outscoring the Bulldogs, 20-9, in the third.

James Muse, who tallied team-high 16 points, adding eight rebounds, five steals and three blocks, scored seven points in the third quarter, while Mason Loucks tossed in six of his 11 with a pair of 3s for Prairie Ridge.

The Wolves got hot in the second half, firing at 46.4%, while Wauconda, which shot 60% in the first half, was 30% over the last two quarters. Jackson Otto (12 points) nailed three 3s in the fourth as the Wolves tried to come all the way back in search of their first regional title since 2016.

Two years ago, the Wolves won only five games and finished 1-17 in the FVC. The reality of their season potentially being over hit them at halftime, down 35-16.

“The suddeness of it all, we all realized it could happen,” said Loucks, one of eight seniors on the Wolves. “This is the tightest group of guys I’ve ever been with. We didn’t want it to come to an end. We’ve always been fighters. We knew we had to start fighting. We knew it wasn’t over.”

The Wolves worked to slow down the pace against a Bulldogs team averaging more than 74 points a game. Prairie Ridge was more active on the boards and quicker in transition.

“I think we just slowed down the pace a little,” said Muse, a junior. “Our defense was outstanding I thought. We were rebounding after every missed shot, making the right decisions and getting out in transition. Just making the right plays.”

Prairie Ridge coach Ryan Smith was proud of his team for making the necessary adjustments.

“Wauconda is a great basketball team and they’re great offensively,” Smith said. “In the first quarter I thought we did some things that were OK, but [Wauconda] didn’t miss a lot of shots. I think we settled down after the first quarter. We did a better job of limiting the turnovers. We made adjustments with where to screen the zone, and kids were aggressive. I thought they had a little bit more confidence, they battled.”

Justin Drobnik added 13 points, including seven in the fourth, and Garrison Carter have five points and 10 rebounds. No other Bulldogs player scored more than four points, but eight total players had points in the victory.

Zach Lindquist added six points on two 3s for the Wolves, along with six assists.

Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager felt Brinias’ hot start was key.

“He’s got those games in him,” Luetschwager said. “He did it the other day with a 23-point game [in the regional semifinals]. The fact that he came out with that in the first quarter, that was monster for us. We needed that lead with the way that PR plays. We needed all of it.”