Crystal Lake South tops Sycamore in sectional semifinal

ROCHELLE – AJ Demirov relaxed in Crystal Lake South’s bus as it made a 60-mile trip to Rochelle for Tuesday’s Class 3A sectional semifinal and read a book, “Golden Son,” as part of his English class.

“I had to catch up,” the senior said.

No, the book isn’t about Demirov, who’s the golden boy of South’s basketball team. He and his teammates, however, are establishing themselves as the gold standard for the program.

South’s 66-37 win over Sycamore gave the Gators 30 wins for the second season in a row, while also earning them a berth in Friday’s 7 p.m. sectional final against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Kaneland and Rockford Boylan.

Before last season, when South won a school-record 31 games in winning a sectional, the program had never reached 30 wins.

“I’ve thought about it,” Demirov said. “It’s kind of crazy. This doesn’t get done often. I just hope that this sets a culture for our program from now on.”

Sycamore (24-9) used a box-and-one defense from the start against Demirov and held him to a season-low seven points as he pursues 2,000 for his four-year varsity career. But the point guard still found a way to impact the game, as he usually does, finishing with 12 assists.

“He’s more than just a scorer,” said Gators guard Carson Trivellini, who had a game-high 21 points, regularly scoring in transition while shooting 9 of 20 (one 3-pointer) from the floor and 2 of 2 from the foul line. “He’s an all-around point guard, and that’s why everyone loves playing with him.”

Demirov wasn’t fazed by the box-and-one and didn’t force shots. He attempted only seven shots all night, making a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter, when South (30-4) took control of the game.

“We’ve seen stuff like that all season,” said Demirov, who’s 16 points shy of 2,000. “I think our first game [against Buffalo Grove at Johnsburg] we got a box-and-one. I know that our guys got my back. I don’t need to go out there and get up 20 shots against a box-and-one. Honestly, it would have been a closer game if I would have done that. I trust my guys.”

Sycamore stayed with South early, jumping out to leads of 9-4 and 12-6, and closing the first quarter with a pair of baskets in the lane by Carter York (team-high 10 points) to go up 16-12.

But South’s 1-3-1 zone, ball pressure and smothering style then took over. With Nick Stowasser providing a spark coming off the bench, as the sophomore guard did in the regional final against Cary-Grove, South outscored Sycamore 20-4 in the second quarter.

“They threw a box-and-one at AJ and us to start, and it took us a little bit of time to figure out how to attack it, even though we go over it a lot,” Gators coach Matt LePage said. “It’s still the sectional. But our guys did a great job. We tried to get the ball inside as much as we could. but it’s not easy at times because they got a 6-7 kid (Michael Chami) in there.”

Trivellini and Stowasser each scored five points in the second quarter as South took a 32-20 lead into the break.

“We just had to slow down,” said Trivellini, who scored 11 points in the first half. “I feel like we were moving really fast. We just had to calm down. Once we got into the flow of things, that’s when we started to really play well.”

South held Sycamore to four points again in the third quarter and took a 48-24 lead into the fourth.

“We just missed, I don’t know,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “We were getting consistent looks. They forced some more turnovers in the second quarter that were allowing them to get easier baskets. ... Their constant pressure, their hands are all over the place, it made it tough for us. Over 32 minutes it kind of wore us out.”

Stowasser finished with 13 points (2 of 2 from 3-point range) and Tony Santarelli added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Gators. Ryan Morgan had seven points and five rebounds.

Demirov simply dished. He had three assists in the first quarter, two in the second, four in the third and three in the fourth.

“It’s all about winning at this time of the year, and he knows that,” LePage said. “When he goes for double-digit assists, I don’t think we’ve lost this year. He knows that, too. It’s that fine line between scoring and making other guys get in the game and feel comfortable. He did a great job of doing that tonight in a big spot.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/northwest-herald/2025/03/05/crystal-lake-south-tops-sycamore-in-sectional-semifinal/