Hickory Creek 8th Grade Boys Basketball Team wins IESA Regional Championship

The Hickory Creek Middle School 8th Grade Boys Basketball team became the first team since the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons to win back to back Des Plaines Valley Conference title and also become the first team in school history to win back to back the IESA Regional Championship.

Hickory Creek, the number 1 seed at the Summit Hill Junior High Regional, opened up with a 45 to 21 win over the 4th seed Mokena Junior High.  With the scored tied at 8-8 at the end of the 1st quarter the Hickory Creek Tigers jumped out to a 20-12 lead at half.  In the second half, Hickory Creek outscored Mokena 25 to 9 for the win.  A balanced scoring attack led the way as Sam Shafer scored 10 points, Anthony Pisarski scored 9 points, Michael Herlihy added 8 points and Joey Buggemi and Zach Parduhn scored 7 and 4 points respectively.  Ricky Smith added 3 points and Brandon Petkoff and Evan McDermed each scored a basket to round out the scoring.

In the Championship game, the Tigers faced the second seed Spartans of Summit Hill Junior High. Up by 2 (7-5) at the end of the 1st quarter, the Tigers jumped out to a 12 point half-time lead 19-7.  Hickory Creek outscored the Spartans 25 to 14 in the second half for a 44-21 win.  Buggemi led the way with 13 points, Parduhn added 7 points, while Herlihy, Shafer, and Pisarski added 6, 5, and 4 points respectively.  Petkoff added 5 points off the bench while Greyson Cox, and Smith each added a basket.  Other players who contributed to the wins and throughout the season were Pat Fagan, Jake VanderWoude and Evan Bruniga,

The Tigers finished the season with 13 wins and l loss in conference play and an overall record of 22 wins and 2 loses.  Other big wins included a 55-23 win over Manhattan Junior High as the bench outscored the starter 38 to 17 and avenging an earlier loss to Troy Middle School with a 42 to 27 victory.