Fiedorowicz helps Johnsburg reach regional final

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JOHNSBURG – Teams facing Johnsburg must pick their poison when defending the Skyhawks’ offense.

They can either stick with single coverage and make 6-foot-6 C.J. Fiedorowicz beat them on the inside, or double down on the senior center and make Johnsburg’s shooters beat them from outside.

Neither tack worked well for Antioch in Tuesday’s IHSA Class 3A Johnsburg Regional semifinal game, as the Skyhawks stretched a four-point halftime lead into a 15-point advantage by the end of the third quarter en route to a 56-37 victory against the Sequoits.

Fiedorowicz led all scorers with 22 points on 9 of 13 shooting and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds for the Skyhawks.

Top-seeded Johnsburg (25-2) will play in the regional final at 7:30 p.m. Friday against the winner of today’s semifinal between No. 3 Richmond-Burton and No. 2 Lakes.

“It’s not like we went away from our game plan tonight,” Skyhawks coach Luke Ravlin said. “If a team is single covering C.J., we’re going to go to him consistently, and if they double him, we know we can get the ball to the open guy and attack that way, too.

“It’s just a blessing to have players who are willing to do whatever it takes to win.”

Despite shooting 50 percent (12 of 24) from the field in the first half, the Skyhawks found themselves ahead by a slim margin, 28-24, after the first half.

Antioch (9-19) shot even better in the first two quarters at 56.3 percent (9 of 16), but the Sequoits hit only one of nine attempts in the third quarter.

“The third quarter has been tough for us all year, especially in the last five games.” Antioch coach Michael Skinner said. “We’ve been talking about not even coming into the locker room at halftime, that’s how bad it has been.

“We can’t put our finger on it.”

Johnsburg junior guard Mike Dombrowski (nine points and four assists) had a hand in every offensive scoring possession in the third except one, scoring five points and dishing out three assists in the frame.

The Skyhawks opened up the game scoring all 14 of their first-quarter points in the paint, including 10 from Fiedorowicz. Guard Mike Dixon (10 points and five assists) scored Johnsburg’s first points from outside with a 17-foot jumper to open the second.

“We scouted them a lot and we knew they were a shooting team,” Fiedorowicz said. “Their bigs are about 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3, so we knew that posting in and out would work and we could get some easy points in the paint.”

Antioch’s junior guard Kyle Melton scored a team-high 13 points, and senior guard Kyle Haley added eight for the Sequoits.