Top 5 Rockford-area high school basketball games to watch this week

We start a new year with a new conference contender playing perhaps its biggest game in school history. That’s on the boys side. The first week of the 2024 girls basketball season is highlighted by a team that should crack the state rankings if it goes unscathed this week.

Here are the top Rockford-area high school basketball games to watch this week:

BOYS

Guilford at Belvidere North, Wednesday

Guilford (11-4, 6-0) is the defending NIC-10 champion. Belvidere North (12-4, 5-1) has never even finished .500 in the conference before, but beat Auburn (9-6, 5-1) earlier this year without its best player, all-conference guard Adam Brown. Those look like the three best teams in the NIC-10 this year, and there could be a three-way tie for first if North beats visiting Guilford on Wednesday.

More: How Belvidere North made history and won its first-ever game at Boylan

“We’re in a position we have never been in before,” North coach Todd Brannan said. “Guilford is definitely one of the top teams. It will be a great challenge. Guilford is really good and they are deep. We have to play really well, but we’re looking forward to it and are excited to be in this situation.”

North is also back to full strength. Brown missed just one week in September and Joseph Brown, a returning starter who was injured in Belvidere North’s first-round football playoff game, is also back. “He looked really good for us in our Christmas tournament,” Brannan said.

Auburn at Hononegah, Friday

Hononegah (6-8, 3-3 NIC-10) is the team that upset North and did so decisively, 66-51. Can Hono pull another upset? Or is Auburn ready to start looking like the preseason favorite it was touted to be? Auburn (9-6, 5-1) started 0-4 playing all of the toughest teams in its own Fred VanVleet Classic and is 0-3 in overtime games, plus lost to Belvidere North by two points. The Knights are much better than their record indicates. But, like the NFL’s Buffalo Bills, they haven’t exactly delivered yet, either.

More: Six Rockford-area teams state-ranked in first AP basketball polls of season

Rock Falls at Byron, Friday

Byron (11-0, 1-0 BNC) is the only undefeated boys team in the area, but the Tigers haven’t finished higher than third in the Big Northern in the last decade and have played predominantly a Class 1A schedule so far. Their signature win to this point is their last one, a 46-37 victory over Class 2A Sherrard (10-2). Now they get their first shot at one of the four other BNC contenders. Rock Falls (11-5, 2-0) won its third regional title in seven years last season.

South Beloit at Dixon, Saturday

Class 1A South Beloit (10-3, 3-0 NAC) gets fewer chances to prove itself than most local teams because of the conference it plays in. But the Sobos played No. 5-ranked Scales Mound tough, leading most of the way before losing 55-51 and somehow upset No. 2 Pecatonica 79-71 in the Eastland semifinals on a night when Pec’s Mason Peterson made an area-record 13 3-pointers. The Sobos lost to four-time defending BNC champ Lutheran 68-55 in the Eastland finals and now gets to play another BNC contender in Class 3A Dixon (14-3, 1-0). The Sobos may need another big game from backup freshman guard Coltan Porter, who made five early 3s against Pecatonica.

“It’s a bigger school, higher quality opponent, on the road on top of it,” South Beloit coach Matt Stucky said. “It’s everything you look forward to in the season to see where you are as a measuring stick.”

More: These were the top Rockford-area high school sports performances of 2023

GIRLS

Pecatonica at Freeport Aquin, Wednesday

Class 1A No. 6-ranked Aquin (10-4, 0-1 NUIC North), led by star freshman Paityn London, has played a brutal early schedule, losing to No. 1-ranked Galena and No. 3 Orangeville and East Moline United, a Class 4A school that is 14-3. They have also beaten Byron, last year’s Class 2A state runner-up, and Dixon, a Class 3A team that is 12-5.

Now comes a Pecatonica team that is 17-1 — but lost to Dixon by two points in November and doesn’t really have a signature win. Pecatonica returned four starters, including NUIC North MVP Elaina Rager, from a team that won 22 games each of the past two years. Both years they finished third in the NUIC North. Beating Aquin and Lena-Winslow (14-5, 1-1) for a second time on Friday would establish Pec as another NUIC power.

“It gets real now,” Pec coach Daniel Rosenstiel said. “We know our conference is really good, the best in Class 1A. We’re trying to prove we can be in that upper echelon. To do that, you have to beat them consistently. We have done that,” Rosenstiel said of beating NUIC North powers Orangeville, Aquin and Le-Win, “but we have also not done that. We’ve been in that middle portion.

“We will have three of the top five guards in the conference on one floor (against Aquin). The London girl, she is the real deal, and so is their whole team. We will find out a lot about ourselves. This is a prove-it game for both teams.”

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.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Battle for NIC-10 lead, tests for BNC, NUIC challengers are top games