Thursday, February 28, 2013

I'm off to Park Ridge tonight...

...to see No. 8-seed Glenbrook North (8-2 conference, 14-11 overall) take on No. 9-seed Niles West (4-6, 15-9) at Maine South High School. The winner will play Maine South on Friday night.

The Spartans are led by Andrew McAuliffe, above, the second-leading scorer in the Central Suburban Conference, with 388 points. (Curiously, the big man is only sixth in the conference in rebounds, with 56.) The 6' 8" senior is headed to Davidson College in North Carolina next year, after having been recruited by several Division I schools, including Northwestern. (The Wildcats lost interest, apparently, after McAuliffe suffered a fractured right patella last season.)

The Wolves of Niles West don't appear to have any stars on the order of McAuliffe, but they did defeat the Spartans, 60-46, in the one meeting between the two schools way back in November. The Skokie squad's most impressive victory of the season was over archrival Niles North, 67-63, but that was in their fifth game of the year, in December.

GBN, for its part, doesn't have any eye-popping victories that I could find. But they did lose narrowly to Warren two weeks ago, 47-45; and to Niles North, 62-57, and St. Viator, 67-65, in January; and to Hillcrest, 53-48, in December. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride? We'll see.

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