Positive thoughts

Marian Central's Ben Krol (left) and the Hurricanes face Oswego in an IHSA Class 3A Hampshire Sectional semifinal on Tuesday. (Travis Haughton – thaughton@nwherald.com)

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Marian Central boys basketball coach Curtis Price sees no reason his team can’t hang around for a while in the IHSA Class 3A postseason.

The Hurricanes have been tested by a tough schedule, with many Class 4A opponents. They have several offensive options and don’t rely on one big scorer. And they have one of the area’s best backcourts in Jake Everly, Danny Noonan and Jacob Tonkin, who defends forwards, but who Price considers a guard anyway.

“This team can do it,” Price said. “If things are clicking, this could be a dangerous team. There’s more to come.”

Starting with today, when Marian (20-9) faces Oswego (22-6) at 7:30 p.m. in the Hampshire Sectional semifinals.

Johnsburg, the area’s other boys basketball team still alive, faces Chicago Gordon Tech (10-17) in the Class 3A Vernon Hills Sectional at 8 p.m. today. The Skyhawks are 26-2.

“We have a lot of guys who can do a lot of stuff offensively,” Everly said. “We have shooters, and we have guys who can create off the dribble. Offensively, our team is pretty good.”

The Hurricanes struggled against Prairie Ridge on Friday night in the Woodstock North Regional championship, mainly because of poor free-throw shooting (25 of 48). Marian eventually prevailed, 56-52, in overtime.

“We’ve done a lot of hard work,” said Noonan, the area’s scoring leader at 16.7 points a game. “We got some height (with 6-foot-6 Ben Krol), so that helps. This is the year that we wanted to do it since coach Price came here (three years ago).”

The Hurricanes will face an Oswego team with several returning players from last year’s Class 3A state runner-up. Andrew Ziemnik, a 6-foot-4, 207-pound forward, is tough inside and outside and leads the Panthers.

Marian hopes its schedule, which included tough teams such as Hononegah, Mundelein, Chicago Robeson, Johnsburg and many of the Fox Valley Conference schools, will benefit it in the playoffs.

“Playing better teams, with that experience, helps,” Everly said. “But we haven’t closed out as well as we could against those teams. It’s about going out and performing from here on out.”

After Marian won its first regional title since 1977, Price believes the Hurricanes can do it.

“We have a lot of confidence in our guys,” Price said. “The key to our team is our guys put their agendas aside and sacrifice and try to win basketball games.”

Everly and Tonkin both score about 12 points a game, Krol has become another threat inside, and any number of players might come in off the bench and contribute.

“Oswego’s a good team that plays real hard, so we want to match their intensity,” Noonan said. “It’s hard not to think about what’s ahead, but we have to just focus on this game. We’re not shocked at playing the state runner-up – we’ve played a lot of good teams. We just have to go out and try to take care of business.”