Nick Stowasser delivers the pain as Crystal Lake South beats Cary-Grove for regional title

CRYSTAL LAKE – Crystal Lake South guard Nick Stowasser can shoot a basketball, and as he proved Friday night against Cary-Grove in a Class 3A regional final, the righty has a deft touch even with a black-and-blue palm.

That’s his shooting-hand palm, mind you.

The 6-foot-3 sophomore bruised his palm on the second of his two dunks against Prairie Ridge in the Gators' regional semifinal when he landed on it.

He took a nonprescription pain reliever before the game, then came off the bench and shot 5 of 7 from 3-point range, helping South win 65-47 at Prairie Ridge. Stowasser finished with a season-high 15 points on a season-high five 3-pointers.

“We were telling him, ‘You should bruise your hand more often,’ ” said senior AJ Demirov, who scored a game-high 21 points as South (29-4), the No. 2 seed in subsectional A, won its third straight regional title and advanced to the Rochelle Sectional. The Gators will play Sycamore (24-8) at 7 p.m. Tuesday in a semifinal.

The only one feeling pain was No. 5 C-G (19-14), which was even with South after one quarter before Stowasser took over.

“Once I took [medication], [the pain] was all gone,” Stowasser said. “It kind of hurt [shooting], but I just didn’t think about it.”

Stowasser’s right-corner 3 with 5:04 left in the second quarter capped a 10-0 run, which started when Cooper Buelna scored on a putback to beat the first-quarter buzzer to put the Gators in front. Stowasser’s second 3-pointer less than two minutes later had South up 28-17.

“I was feeling it today,” Stowasser said. “We were moving the ball well, my teammates got me open shots, and they fell.”

South almost didn’t miss in the second quarter. The Gators shot 8 of 10 from the floor, including 6 of 7 from the beyond the arc, in taking a 34-23 lead into the break. Carson Trivellini (12 points), Buelna (10 points) and Demirov also hit 3s in the quarter.

“They’re a really good team,” C-G coach Adam McCloud said. “We needed some things to go our way. It’s hard enough to defend the best player in the league, the best player in the county, an all-state kid (Demirov), and then you got (No.) 5 (Trivellini), who’s just a tough nut, and then (No.) 3 (Stowasser) off the bench.

“That’s the difference in the game.”

Adam Bauer tried to keep the Trojans close. He finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, but Stowasser stayed hot. He made two more 3-pointers in the third and another in the fourth.

“Almost every day in practice he’s like that,” said Demirov, whose scoring performance left him 23 points shy of 2,000 for his four-year varsity career. “We know he’s a great shooter. We all trust him to take those shots. It was a great performance.”

South coach Matt LePage also has seen Stowasser rise to the occasion.

“He’s not afraid of the moment,” LePage said. “We’ve been in a lot of big games this year, so we know with the double-teams, they’re going to leave people. When it’s your chance, step up.”

Demirov picked up his third foul with a minute left before halftime, so LePage moved his point guard to the top of the Gators’ 1-3-1 zone in the second half. It proved effective, as Demirov didn’t pick up another foul. He helped keep C-G at bay down the stretch by scoring eight points in the game’s final four minutes (4 of 4 from the stripe).

Ryan Morgan grabbed nine rebounds for South, which beat C-G by 31 and four points during Fox Valley Conference action. The Gators have won nine straight.

“It was a fun game, great atmosphere for high school basketball and our conference, and two good teams going at it,” LePage said. “We’re just made more shots. We got hot.”

Cary-Grove, which played its sixth game in a row without sharp-shooting guard Justice German (torn right ACL), had won four its past five games since a season-worst four-game losing streak. Dylan Dumele and AJ Berndt added eight and seven points, respectively, for the Trojans, who had leads of 7-2 and 9-4 in the opening four minutes.

“I wouldn’t have changed the game plan,” McCloud said. “I just would have hoped (Stowasser) would have missed a little bit more, maybe our rotations would have been a little better.

“Hats off to South. There’s a reason why they’ve been the team to beat the last couple of years.”