Tale of the twin cities

Circle the date, circle the wagons, circle anything you want, hoops fans: The 3A boys regional pairings were released Friday, and the Sauk Valley received a basketball treat.

On February 29, at Lancaster Gym in Dixon, the Sterling Golden Warriors and the Rock Falls Rockets will lock horns in a regional semifinal.

Sterling (12-11) is the second seed. Rock Falls (11-13) is the third seed. Alleman received the top seed and will meet either Geneseo (4-15) or Dixon (1-23) in the other semifinal on Tuesday, Feb. 28.

It’s the first postseason meeting between the Warriors and Rockets since 2008.

The two met in a regional championship that season. Sterling had some kid named Joseph Bertrand playing that night in a 65-53 win. The Warriors kept going all the way to the supersectional.

Of course, Mr. Bertrand is using his talents down in Champaign now, and trying to get a struggling Illini team into the NCAA Tournament field. Bertrand’s teammates Dustin Fritsch, Niko Rivera and Josh Feldthouse have also taken their talents to the next level.

Big names from that Rock Falls team – Tevin Rumley and a freshman named Jake Junis – are gone as well. Rumley is hooping it up at Milwaukee Tech, while Junis is gearing up for spring training with the Kansas City Royals.

Times have changed. Coaches have changed. Ryan Brown is in his third season since replacing Peter Goff at Sterling; Scott Olson is in his second season since taking over for Mike Winters in Rock Falls.

The 2011-12 teams met way back in November in the final game of the Sauk Valley Shootout. The Rockets won that game 63-60 in double overtime.

The win seemed like it could catapult the Rockets into another great season of hoops to go along with the hallowed tradition at Tabor Gym.

Instead, the Rockets have battled inconsistency on the court and controversy off it.

On the court, they’ve shown flashes of brilliance, even without junior forward Steven Armoska, who didn’t see action until his Jan. 27 return from a disciplinary suspension. But that brilliance has been balanced by nights where shots didn’t fall and energy seemed low.