Freeport senior ends hoops career with injury
Freeport’s breakthrough season ended in a crash landing Tuesday. The Pretzels not only lost 80-49 to Crystal Lake South in the semifinals of the Class 3A Maple Park Kaneland Sectional, but they also lost leading rebounder and third-leading scorer Jaeden Marion to a high-ankle sprain late in the first quarter.
“That changed our game plan and some of the things we wanted to do,” Freeport coach Tee Jay Jackson said. “Taking out seven rebounds a game and a couple of blocks, that hurts any type of team.”
Marion wound up not scoring a point in his final high school game after leaving so early.
“That’s horrible. That’s the worst,” Jackson said of finishing his career sidelined by injury in one of his biggest games. “That’s something you don;’t want to see happen to any kid. He was done.”
Freeport (21-13) was already in trouble against Crystal Lake South (30-3), which won the Fox Valley Conference with a perfect 18-0 record. CLS starts four players 6-foot-5 or taller, including 6-8 center Christian Rohde, who scored 14 points. Freeport starts no one taller than 6-2. Even with Marion, the Pretzels were down a dozen points. Without him, Crystal Lake South had a commanding 26-11 rebounding edge at halftime and led by 20 points.
AJ Demirov led the Gators, who advance to play the winner of Belvidere North against Kaneland, with 23 points and 12 assists, including 20 in the second and third quarters. Tony Santarelli added 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
Deklyn Rustad led Freeport with 13 points. Dedric Macon, who along with Marion is Freeport’s only key senior, added 11 points. Freshman Isaiah Baker had seven.
While the season ended on a sour note, Freeport won 20 games for the first time in 18 years, a regional title for the first time in 14 years and finished 14-4 in the NIC-10, only the eighth time in 60 years the Pretzels have won that many games in the conference.
“This season was a huge leap,” Jackson said. “We knew going into the season we had something special. We just had to watch it click and over time it developed. It means a lot to see your hard work pay off when you put the time in
“Winning a regional means a lot for our seniors who are leaving, but it also set the stage for our younger guys. We are going to enjoy the history we made,
but we are not done. We are going to come back stronger and work even harder moving forward. These guys are not satisfied.
“Our biggest thing,” Jackson said of Freeport continuing its upward trend, “will be being able to guard the perimeter and guard against size. Defense will be our biggest calling card.”
Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.