BLOOMINGTON — Danville went into Wednesday’s IHSA Class 3A regional semifinal against Normal University High looking for a seasonal first.
Through 26 games this season, the Vikings had been unsuccessful at winning back-to-back games.
Coming off a regional quarterfinal victory against Rantoul, Danville needed its first winning streak to advance to Friday’s regional championship at Bloomington High School.
The top-seeded Pioneers (25-6) sank 11 3-pointers including a pair during a 10-0 run to end the second quarter as Normal U-High advanced to the regional final with a 65-51 victory against Danville.
“We just lost our focus for a few minutes to end the first half and they made us pay,’’ Danville coach David Gouard said. “Our scouting report said to limit their 3-pointers as much as we could, and we just lost track of their shooters at the wrong time.’’
The Vikings (8-18) had the lead on three different occasions in the first half, but they went scoreless over the final 5 minutes, 19 seconds of the second quarter.
During that stretch, Normal U-High opened a 27-17 halftime advantage and the Pioneers would never look back.
Danville did pull within six on a basket by DeAndre Burns in the third quarter (32-26) but that was as close as the Vikings would come to the Pioneers.
“It was just too big of a hole,’’ Gouard said. “When you get down like that, you use so much energy coming back that you eventually run out of gas.’’
U-High junior Owen Kirby helped seal the victory for the Pioneers, scoring 15 of his game-high 21 in the final eight minutes. Devin Fitzgerald had 15 and Dallas Smith chipped in with 11.
Burns was the leading scorer for Danville with 19 points, while Kindyn Mason finished with 12.
Gouard said that he saw both positives and negatives this season.
“I told the guys that are coming back that they have a few weeks before we get back to work, except for the guys in a spring sport,’’ he said. “There are three things that we are going to address this offseason. Number one is the weight room, secondly, we need to improve our ball skills and finally, we have to improve our basketball IQ.’’