Chicago Sports

Name a concert in Chicago over the past four decades, and the odds are good Marty Perez was there with his camera.

As a high-schooler in Beverly, Perez started bringing his camera to stadium shows by groups like Queen and Led Zeppelin. Soon, it became a life capturing the onstage and offstage moments of musicians, from blues legends like Muddy Waters and Tail Dragger to Mudhoney and Lou Reed.

Perez’s new book “Kill a Punk For Rock & Roll” ($34.99), published by Chicago’s HoZac Books, reflects many of those moments, with more than 200 pages of his photographs, spanning 1976 to 2019.

Perez says he’s still motivated to photograph new bands, but making a living at it has become harder due to the decline in print media and explosion in phone technology that puts a camera in everyone’s pocket.

“There’s definitely new folks coming up through the ranks keeping the music alive and the drive to capture it still resides in me,” he says. “But having it put money on the table nowadays has dried up.”

Here, Perez tells the stories behind seven of the book’s photos, each which captured a moment of life on the big stage. The photos also offer a look at long-shuttered music venues including the Chicago Stadium, Lounge Ax and B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted.

Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin (1977)

Perez: “For me, a junior in high school at the time, it was a huge moment. No band was bigger than Led Zeppelin. It was the height of their ‘Golden God’ period.

“A friend and I took off Easter weekend, and we lined up Friday afternoon and sat the whole weekend with a bunch of other people in the parking of the Chicago Stadium, waiting for tickets to go on sale Monday. All hell broke loose in that first half hour before tickets went on sale. But we got tickets, and I was able to take photos from the 20th row.

“This shot was the product of luck. If the Instamatic camera held by the person in the front row didn’t flash, the shot would have been unusable. But it did, and you can see the dynamic of Jimmy Page and the light blinding the security guard. It’s a one-in-a-million type shot.”

Lefty Dizz (1980)

Perez: “I was living in Seattle but returned to Chicago on Christmas. That was a traditional thing we’d do back then. There was nothing like the blues clubs in Chicago in the 1980s.

“That shot of Lefty was on a cold December night but at a hot show at B.L.U.E.S. on Halsted. It didn’t seem like he was on the larger blues radar. He was more of a hometown secret treasure. He was a showman. Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed to mimic Lefty’s mannerisms and showmanship. If Lefty had the long guitar chord, he was out in the audience just doing the guitar slinger thing. The popular version of the blues at the time was Robert Cray and that wimpy-sounding porno-movie soundtrack-type music. But in Chicago, you’d see Lefty Dizz and get punched in the face with the real Chicago style.”

Nirvana (1989)

Perez: “This was my claim to fame. In the ’90s, if you were a music photographer, Nirvana was the band that you hoped to shoot. This was one of their earlier tours. They were still with the original drummer” — Chad Channing. “They had been on the East Coast and were headed back to Seattle. They were all sick.

“Frankly, they really didn’t impress me that night. They were scheduled to open for Eleventh Dream Day at Metro. They had just released their first record. There was a big word of mouth. And, after they played, the place almost emptied out.

“They didn’t do that much for me at the time. I didn’t overextend myself to get shots of Kurt [Cobain] and the band. That shot is the best one I have. It perfectly sums up that pre-grunge thing. You have the hair, and he’s in the moment with the freak flag flying. And he happens to be wearing a flannel shirt.”

Freakwater (1989)

Perez: “Anybody who knows Chicago knows that intersection” — Clark and Addison streets — “no longer looks like that. Freakwater was an offshoot of Eleventh Dream Day. I had shot Eleventh Dream Day before, and the word of mouth around town was about this band that EDD drummer Janet [Bean] is playing in, and it’s a country band.

“It was a couple of months before their first record. The whole [1990s alt-country movement] hadn’t set in yet. Janet Bean and Catherine Irwin were digging deep into the country music catalogue that hadn’t been exploited. The harmonies between the two of them were unique and refreshing for that time. It was a hot afternoon right after their soundcheck. They were gracious to do a quick pose on that homemade foyer that the Cubby Bear had back then.”

Fans outside Metro (1990)

Perez: “It was a Cramps show early in their career. I was photographing the opening band, which was the Flat Duo Jets. I got there early and had some time to kill.

“In those days, just like now, people started lining up for the show. Look at their faces. Anyone would have been captivated by that group. The guy on the right was the brother of one of those girls. Ten years later at the Vic, I was photographing the Cramps again for a publication. As I was leaving, a guy comes up and says, ‘Remember me?’ It was the same guy, but this time he was the road manager for the Cramps. It shows you how small of a world it is.

“He said he moved to California after that Metro show and somehow ingratiated himself into their organization as a roadie, and he was good enough they made him the road manager. If I’m not mistaken, he continued working with the band after [lead singer] Lux [Interior] died [in 2009], and they called it quits. That’s what can happen when you’re a fan of rock ‘n’ roll — you can join the beast.”

Liz Phair (1993)

Perez: “She was opening for Antenna at Lounge Ax. It was just her and a guitar. It was very early on, and it was a decent draw, but it wasn’t packed.

“That shot was in the middle of the performance. Hopefully, I wasn’t distracting her. When she was done with a song, she surveyed the house, and we happened to lock eyes. She was a small woman with a guitar with strong songs, and she held her own. And she took the stage and kicked ass.

“You kind of thought, ‘This woman’s so talented there’s a good likelihood that she was going to go somewhere.’ You never realized in nine months how far she’d take it. After that, she played a headlining record release show at Metro for ‘Exile in Guyville.’ And that show was packed.”

Iggy Pop (2007)

Perez: “The stuff that Iggy has done to his body over the years is legendary. And watching Iggy age is like watching how rock music has aged. He looks pretty good for a guy in his late 60s and early 70s.

“My reason for shooting him that way was to show the toll that Iggy put on his body. He’s still up there jumping around gyrating, and it doesn’t look too bad. In a silly way, I framed his body so his chest looks like the ‘sorting hat’ from the ‘Harry Potter’ movies.

“That was the first Stooges reunion at Lollapalooza. At least 100 people or more were up on stage with him by the end of the show.”

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Chicago’s police oversight agency sought the dismissal of a Chicago police officer who lost his loaded gun during a drunken fight at a Milwaukee bar, but he was suspended instead and later left for a suburban police department.

Officer Robert Pet had traveled to Milwaukee nine days before Christmas in 2018, according to a report made public this week by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. After having dinner, going to a concert and hanging out at a bar — all while toting a loaded gun — he went to another tavern.

That’s where he pointed a bullet magazine against a man’s chest during an argument and was quickly pummeled by a group of patrons, one of whom wrestled the gun away, the report states.

Pet, who was arrested, struggled to recall the incident during interviews with investigators.

COPA called for the officer’s dismissal, saying “his dangerously poor judgment is not befitting of a sworn officer and renders him ill-suited to continue to serve in his capacity as a police officer.”

Ultimately, though, the city reached a settlement with Pet in August 2021, handing down a 180-day suspension instead.

Despite COPA’s findings, Pet was hired by the police department in northwest suburban Wauconda last September — a day before the Chicago Police Department listed him as “inactive,” according to a CPD spokeswoman and state law enforcement records.

Wauconda Police Sgt. Heather Cognac said Pet’s hiring hinged on the final determination of his disciplinary case. Cognac claimed “COPA was advised of this agreement and responded that they had no objections.”

“Officer Pet was reinstated to full duty status by [the] Chicago Police Department prior to his employment with [the] Wauconda Police Department,” Cognac said.

A COPA spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Pet had been hired by the CPD in June 2017, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. His parents were both Chicago police officials, and his mother presented him with his late father’s star in a ceremony late that December, the department wrote on Twitter at the time.

COPA’s report raised serious questions about his fitness as an officer, warning that his behavior that night in December 2018 amounted to “a profound lapse in judgment.”

“What should not be deemed mitigating is that no one was injured,” COPA said. “Officer Pet’s actions surely put that possibility in motion.”

When Milwaukee police officers arrived at the Rogue’s Galley bar, they confronted Pet about “another altercation earlier in the night” and he initially refused to answer questions or submit to sobriety testing, according to the report.

When police obtained a warrant to draw his blood four hours later, Pet’s blood alcohol content was 0.11%, higher than the 0.08% limit to drive in Wisconsin.

During his arrest, Pet said he was a Chicago cop and “his firearm was missing,” the report states. His gun had been handed over to police after he was disarmed during the melee.

In an interview with COPA in April 2020, Pet acknowledged he had a spotty recollection of the night and couldn’t say how much liquor he had consumed. He also didn’t remember pulling out the magazine, being punched or exactly what happened to the gun.

He was charged with a misdemeanor count of operating a firearm while intoxicated, but the charge was amended to disorderly conduct, a non-criminal municipal offense, the report and court records show. He pleaded no contest and was fined $250.

COPA also sustained three disciplinary allegations, finding he had become intoxicated while off the clock, took an unnecessary verbal altercation and displayed the magazine.

“Officer Pet’s actions were criminal in nature and brought significant discredit to the Department,” the agency said in pressing unsuccessfully for his dismissal.

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Some teams work as a grand idea, as a theory, as a vision in someone’s fevered imagination, but don’t work in real life. The Bulls are one of those teams.

Put Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic together and you have dynamite. That was the belief, at least. It takes a Big Three to win in the NBA, and the Bulls had theirs. What team vice president Arturas Karnisovas apparently failed to consider was that a trio of talented players would be incapable of bringing out the best in each other and creating a team that was greater than its parts.

LaVine gets 30 points anytime he wants. So does DeRozan. Vucevic gets a double-double anytime he wants. They don’t get victories anytime they want. The Bulls are every bit an under-.500 team.

This is a two-year working draft that has gone nowhere and is going nowhere.

It gets worse: There are no good solutions.

The first option is to try to add talent before the Feb. 9 trade deadline. That would imply that a new player or two can put an end to the up-and-down cycle the Bulls have been on all season, a cycle the Big Three and coach Billy Donovan seem incapable of stopping. Who is this magical player and why would another team want to give him up?

The second option is starting over. That would be an extremely tough sell to a fanbase that was told several years back that a rebuild would bring success. It’s midway through Year 3 of the Karnisovas era, and the guy wants to go back to Square 1? If so, he must really be into inflicting pain on himself and others.

The third option is standing pat and hoping things get better. Hope is not a strategy. It’s a prayer. If you’ve watched the Bulls this season, you know that no one up there is listening.

A season and a half of evidence suggests this team is missing the unquantifiable something that great teams have. Last year’s group was good (46-36) but couldn’t beat opponents with better records, a weakness that was perfectly illustrated by a 30-point home loss to the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs. Milwaukee won the series 4-1.

This year’s team (22-26) is having trouble beating opponents with worse records. You have to give the Bulls credit for mixing it up in the how-to-lose category. After a loss to the lowly Hornets on Thursday night, Donovan talked about the character of his players. Character: the last refuge of a losing team.

“There’s too much substance of good guys that want to do the right things and care,” he said.

If this team was as chock full of character as Donovan thinks it is, he and the players would not be talking about the need for “desperation” and “the right mentality,” as they were after Thursday’s loss. Tough players don’t have an on/off switch for those things. To them, every game is desperate, even if that game is Go Fish. To them, the right mentality isn’t a choice. It doesn’t need to be conjured up. It doesn’t require a team meeting or a seance. It’s always there.

The Bulls have three very good players who can’t be great together. That’s almost hard to do. It’s almost as if the team is working not to meld on the court. Karnisovas, the man who put this together, has to answer for that.

If there’s one culprit on the court, it’s LaVine. He’s a product of his basketball upbringing. He’s every kid who came up through the summer basketball circuit and was told he had to get his shots, his touches. He’s every kid who was told he needed to showcase his talents. That’s what his game looks like. It’s very hard to build a winner around that. See James Harden.

You can’t argue with LaVine’s statistics this season (23.6 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 37.3% three-point shooting). You can argue with the lack of team success. He’s making $37 million, as part of the five-year, $215.2 million contract Karnisovas gave him last summer. That’s supposed to translate into victories. It hasn’t, no matter who’s on the floor with him.

(Whoever says, “If only the Bulls had a healthy Lonzo Ball,” will be asked what they want for their last meal.)

This is The Team That Doesn’t Work. You can say no one could have envisioned three such talented players not succeeding together, but envisioning is kind of Karnisovas’ job, isn’t it? Building a team isn’t just about amassing talent. It’s about assessing it. There’s nuance involved. This Bulls team has none of it. They hit you over the head with exciting individual efforts and very little in the way of substance.

Some big ideas work. Some don’t.

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Georgis Catering has been around for nearly 80 years, its business ranging from providing meals to the elderly to serving Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks on their private planes.

On Thursday night, a fire destroyed the company’s building at 6339 S. Central Ave., just blocks from Midway Airport.

“It’s gutted, it’s done,” said Becky Walowski, an employee. “Thankfully the building was empty, it happened after everyone left … The last I heard, the roof collapsed. We don’t know how it started.”

Walowski said half of Georgis’ business was serving 2,000 meals a day for the elderly in their homes or at centers across the Chicago area. The other half was providing in-flight meals on private planes.

“We’ve done presidents, we do the Bulls, we do the Blackhawks, we do the Milwaukee Bucks,” she said. “We deliver right to their planes. If Warren Buffet is flying out of Palwaukee Airport, we take care of him.”

Walowski described the business as a “mom and pop shop.” It has 35 employees and the chef has been there for 30 years.

She was unsure what the business will do now. “You don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do.”

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Marcus Robinson, a former Chicago Bears wide receiver, uses the words “gut wrenching” to describe his reaction when his son, Marcus Jr., was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia eight years ago.

“Any time you hear ‘cancer,’ the first thing you think about is death,” the elder Robinson, now retired, says of his son’s prognosis at age 10. ‘[You think] he only has so much time.'”

Robinson’s helplessness was palpable when the doctor delivered the news to Robinson and his wife, Keyomi, on April 19, 2015. He went to the hospital’s garage, sat in his car and cried.

“You want to be strong,” said Robinson, whose Bears team record of 1,400 receiving yards in 1999 stood until 2012, when wide receiver Brandon Marshall broke it. “So I got myself together [before telling my son the diagnosis.]”

The Robinsons were stunned because Marcus Jr. had had no symptoms. Out of the blue, the younger Robinson complained that his hamstring hurt one Sunday when the family was getting ready to go to church.

The family had just returned from a vacation in Mexico, so when Robinson saw a white bump with redness around it on the back of Marcus Jr.’s leg, he thought it might be a spider bite.

They went to Sherman Hospital in northwest suburban Elgin to get the bump drained. A nurse took two blood tests and told the Robinsons that Marcus Jr. would have to travel by ambulance to Advocate Children’s Hospital, further worrying the family. Then came the doctor’s sitdown with the Robinson parents.

“Those first couple of days, your whole life has changed,” the elder Robinson says. “You don’t know what to expect. You never think it would be you.”

Since Marcus Jr.’s condition was caught early, his prospects were good. He had to undergo chemotherapy and wear an implanted port from age 10 to 14 to provide IV access for the chemo, medications and blood draws. He lost his hair at one point and couldn’t participate in organized sports.

Yet Marcus Jr. proved to be a trooper.

He insisted on continuing to do pushups each morning with his dad and would leave the hospital after getting chemo in his spine and pretend to play basketball.

And now, Marcus Jr., 18, is thriving. The younger Robinson stands “a little taller” than his 6-foot, 4-inch tall dad, just started school at Elgin Community College, and is working at Home Depot.

“Trials happen,” the elder Robinson says. “I learned that, no matter what age, it depends on your outlook on things. Just like I’d do before a game, you have to envision yourself making the play, going out and dominating, and having a positive image about yourself.”

Robinson advised other families facing a similar situation to rally around the cancer patient and make listening the top priority.

“Get in touch with everybody in the family–cousins, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles and in-laws–and rotate through sitting with [the cancer patient],” he says. “They need to know that they’re not alone, that there’s someone for them to cry on, play with, talk to.”

“Don’t try to give your take on it,” he says. “Let [the cancer patient] talk it out however he wants to process it. If he feels down that day…he’s tired of taking the medicine…you just listen. You don’t need to fix it. You’ll learn a lot.”

He also believes that the family’s steadfast prayers made a difference. “God was definitely in it,” he says.

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The Chicago Blackhawks are in the middle of a road trip that has them going through Western Canada. That is always a really hard trip for NHL teams to get through as it is pretty far away from most teams and they are up against teams that expect to win at home.

They were absolutely destroyed by the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday. They kept it close in terms of the score until the third period when the Canucks pulled away. Despite keeping it close on the scoreboard, they were outshot 48 to 14 so the game was never as close as it seemed.

That brings us to Thursday night when they took on the Calgary Flames who are fighting hard for a postseason spot. Shockingly, they beat them down by a final score of 5-1 and they did it without Jonathan Toews who was missing because of a non-COVID-related illness.

Chicago really played as well as they could in this game. They were well positioned, made smart choices, and capitalized on their chances as well as you can in an NHL game. You don’t expect that from this Hawks team in a year like this but they really put it together here.

The Chicago Blackhawks were outstanding in their Thursday night win.

Their only blemish was a goal scored by Jonathan Huberdeau who has been one of the best NHL players over the last few years and he made a brilliant play. Outside of that, they were very good.

This was also the second career start for Jaxson Stauber who is now 2-0-0 in his NHL career with a 2.00 goals-against average and .940 save percentage. To say that he has been great for the Hawks would be an understatement.

Again, this isn’t very good for the tank but both the Arizona Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks won on Thursday as well so the Hawks only jumped the Columbus Blue Jackets. As we’ve seen with every NHL Draft Lottery, you kind of just have to let the cards fall where they may.

Jonathan Toews was out and they won. They went 3-0-0 without Patrick Kane in the lineup. It is a coincidence because those are amazing players but they are preparing for life without them so it is something to keep an eye on.

Now, the Hawks have the hardest test of the Western Canada trip ahead of them. On Saturday night, they will be taking on the Edmonton Oilers. Of course, the Oilers have the NHL’s two leading scorers in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl and they make things hard for everyone.

This is sure to be a very fun game to watch but the Hawks need to match their intensity from the Calgary game if they want to avoid being completely embarrassed by the best 1-2 punch in the NHL.

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Georgis Catering has been around for nearly 80 years, its business ranging from providing meals to the elderly to serving Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks on their private planes.

On Thursday night, a fire destroyed the company’s building at 6339 S. Central Ave., just blocks from Midway Airport.

“It’s gutted, it’s done,” said Becky Walowski, an employee. “Thankfully the building was empty, it happened after everyone left … The last I heard, the roof collapsed. We don’t know how it started.”

Walowski said half of Georgis’ business was serving 2,000 meals a day for the elderly in their homes or at centers across the Chicago area. The other half was providing in-flight meals on private planes.

“We’ve done presidents, we do the Bulls, we do the Blackhawks, we do the Milwaukee Bucks,” she said. “We deliver right to their planes. If Warren Buffet is flying out of Palwaukee Airport, we take care of him.”

Walowski described the business as a “mom and pop shop.” It has 35 employees and the chef has been there for 30 years.

She was unsure what the business will do now. “You don’t know what to say, you don’t know what to do.”

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LOS ANGELES — Two months after undergoing surgery for serious burns, Jay Leno is now contending with a number of broken bones after being knocked off a motorcycle.

The comedian and former “Tonight Show” host told a Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Thursday that he broke his collarbone and two ribs and cracked his kneecaps on Jan. 17.

The November garage fire and January wreck both stemmed from his passion for working on vintage vehicles. He suffered burns on his face, hands and chest in a gasoline fire while repairing the fuel line on a vintage car. Last week, it was a vintage motorcycle.

He told the Review-Journal’s John Katsilometes he was testing a 1940 motorcycle when he noticed the scent of leaking gas.

“So I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it,” Leno, 72, said. “So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late.”

He insisted he was OK and would even be working this weekend, adding that the intense coverage of the November fire made him reluctant to say anything in the days since last week’s accident.

Leno took over NBC’s “Tonight” when longtime host Johnny Carson retired in 1992. He was succeeded by Conan O’Brien in 2009, but NBC got cold feet when the show’s ratings dropped and brought Leno back as host in 2010. He remained in the job until Jimmy Fallon took over in 2014.

Leno turned his love of cars into a CNBC series, “Jay Leno’s Garage,” and hosts a revival of the game show “You Bet Your Life.”

He was hospitalized for nine days after the fire but was back performing stand-up at a Southern California club six days after his release, People reported last year.

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After a whirlwind of a week in high school basketball with high-profile games and events, upsets and several conference showdowns, this weekend is a little more calm. But there are still a handful of key games. Here is the Weekend Forecast.

Last week: 5-5

Season: 19-12

Geneva (19-3) at Wheaton-Warrenville South (20-2), Friday

There is a lot at stake in this DuKane Conference clash. Wheaton-Warrenville South is unbeaten in league play while Geneva is one game out. Geneva’s last loss? Way back in early December — to Wheaton-Warrenville South.

Geneva is red-hot, thanks to balance and unselfish scoring, which is led by senior veterans Mick Lawrence (13 ppg) at point guard and 6-1 Jimmy Rasmussen (12 ppg)

Quietly, Braylen Meredith has been a little off the radar, but he’s in the midst of a terrific senior season while averaging 17.2 points a game to lead Wheaton-Warrenville South. Sophomore Luca Carbonaro and Colin Moore both average right around 10 points a game for the Tigers.

Wheaton-Warrenville South is at home, has played the better schedule in preparation for this one and Geneva has to lose again at some point, right?

The pick: Wheaton-Warrenville South 44, Geneva 40

Brother Rice (21-3) at St. Ignatius (16-6), Friday

The long-term goals for St. Ignatius remain the same. There is enough talent, led by George Mason recruit Richard Barron, junior Reggie Ray, sophomore Phoenix Gill and 6-9 Jackson Kotecki, who is headed to Miami-Ohio, to finish this season where it did last year: playing in Champaign.

But there is no question the Wolfpack, who had a sizzling start to the season, have hit a bump in the road. Ignatius has played a very strong schedule but is just 3-5 in its last eight games.

Brother Rice, meanwhile, will come in with renewed confidence after two big wins last week. The Crusaders knocked off rival Marist in an emotional win and beat highly-ranked Rolling Meadows in a big-time atmosphere.

Ahmad Henderson, the point guard headed to Niagara, is putting together a difference-making season.

The pick: Brother Rice 60, St. Ignatius 54

Glenbrook South (18-5) at New Trier (19-4), Friday

There seems to be an important, key league game every week, so it’s just another day in the Central Suburban League South. But with both Glenbrook North and New Trier on top of the CSL South with one loss, this is a must-win game for two-loss GBS to stay right in the mix.

These two met in Glenview back in December with New Trier picking up a 52-46 road win.

The 45-35 loss to Prospect earlier this week was an outlier; the balanced Titans are have been playing well and had their seven-game win streak snapped with the loss to Prospect. Rodell Davis, Jr., Nick Taylor and Gaven Marr are all capable of and have scored in double figures.

You have to like New Trier’s toughness. That starts with leading scorer Jake Fiegen, the team’s leading scorer, and point guard Evan Kanellos. Tyler Van Gorp adds size at 6-10 while junior Ian Brown and sophomore Colby Smith are perimeter scoring threats.

The pick: New Trier 58, Glenbrook South 54

Riverside-Brookfield (18-4) at Lyons (18-3), Saturday

A big test and measuring stick for Riverside-Brookfield in a matchup with neighboring Lyons. The Bulldogs have rattled off eight straight wins since a lopsided loss to St. Ignatius at Christmas. However, none of those victories came against teams that match what Lyons brings to the table.

R-B can score it and do it in different ways with super shooter Arius Alijosius (16.2 ppg), versatile Will Gonzalez (13 ppg) and 6-10 Stefan Cicic (16 ppg, 9.6 rpg), whose production has skyrocketed over the second half of the season.

Nik Polonowski is always a tough matchup with his ability to stretch the floor with his shooting and strength in scoring around the basket. Plus, Jackson Niego is a steady and strong presence at point guard. The experience, physicality and cohesiveness Lyons has on its side is the difference.

The pick: Lyons 55, Riverside-Brookfield 50

Loyola (19-6) vs. Bolingbrook (17-6) at Evanston, Saturday

The middle game of this year’s annual War on the Shore includes two contrasting styles and is the most intriguing of the bunch.

Loyola was slow to click on all cylinders early in the season as it waited for the return of some key pieces from the state championship football team. Bolingbrook has also been shorthanded at times due to injury. They’re now both fully stocked and ready for a second half of the season run.

Loyola, led by Alex Engro and junior Miles Boland, was cruising right along, including a road win over Brother Rice, before last Saturday’s 38-36 clunker of a loss to Taft. But the Ramblers continue to play the type of team defense no one wants to play. If they can find enough scoring, this becomes a very dangerous team.

Mekhi Cooper, a Miami-Ohio recruit, leads a Bolingbrook team that owns wins over Oswego East, St. Ignatius and Lincoln-Way East. Cooper has been a load, averaging 19.5 points, 3.5 assists and three steals a game. When you put some efficient players around him, you’re in good shape. Coach Rob Brost has DJ Strong, Aries Hull and Keon Alexander who are all double-figure scorers for the Raiders.

Downers Grove North kept it a halfcourt game last week and beat the ‘Brook 48-38. Can Loyola follow suit?

The pick: Loyola 48, Bolingbrook 44

Moline (20-3) vs. Rolling Meadows (21-3) at Glenbrook South, Saturday

The best game of the weekend and the featured matchup in a three-game shootout at the Titan Dome at Glenbrook South.

Moline makes a second weekend trip to the Chicago area, bringing their future Big Ten players with them. Point guard Brock Harding and 6-10 Owen Freeman are one of the best tandems in the state. They were terrific in a tight loss to No. 1 ranked Simeon in last weekend’s When Sides Collide.

Harding averages 18.1 points and over five assists while Freeman, who scored 25 against Simeon, puts up 19 points and nearly 10 rebounds a game.

Rolling Meadows has size and length to contend with Freeman inside, while Cameron Christie remains one of the elite talents in the state.

Expect this battle between two of the best Class 4A teams in the state to go down to the wire.

The pick: Moline 67, Rolling Meadows 66

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The team with the longest current winning streak in the Chicago area may surprise you.

The answer: Geneva.

Coach Scott Hennig’s team is rolling. The Vikings haven’t lost since Dec. 7, falling to DuKane Conference leader Wheaton-Warrenville South. But as Geneva heads into a rematch this tonight with the Tiers, the winning streak has reached 15 consecutive games.

A couple of senior veterans, point guard Mick Lawrence, a three-year starter, and 6-1 Jimmy Rasmussen, have catapulted the Vikings to a 19-3 record. They combine to average 25 points a game while 6-3 junior Tommy Diamond (9 ppg, 9 rpg) is a defensive and rebounding presence.

The Geneva vs. Wheaton-Warrenville South battle for first place in the DuKane Conference might not be the last big game these two play this year. With Benet looking as if it will be the top seed in the Bartlett Sectional, Geneva and Wheaton-Warrenville South are positioned to be the No. 2 and No. 3 seeds and would be on a collision course to meet in a sectional semifinal.

Appreciating Gene Heidkamp

Even if it was a mismatch on paper from a pure talent, size and athletic standpoint, Benet’s home win over Kenwood last weekend shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Among top programs in the state, there is no coach who has consistently won more or at a higher level with less Division I talent than Benet’s Gene Heidkamp.

The two-time City/Suburban Hoops Report Coach of the Year has had five Division I players — and a total of six scholarship players — in his 15 seasons as the head coach at Benet.

Dave Sobolewski (Northwestern) and Frank Kaminsky (Wisconsin) were part of the 29-1 team in 2010-11. Big man Sean O’Mara (Xavier) led the Redwings to a state runner-up finish in 2014. Kyle Thomas (Eastern Illinois) played last year, and this season it’s 6-5 Niko Abusara who is headed to Dartmouth.

But Heidkamp has two state runner-up finishes and is on the verge of winning 21-plus games for the 13th time in 15 seasons. And he’s done so while loading up his schedule and playing a highly-competitive non-conference slate.

Simply put, Heidkamp has been and remains one of the truly elite coaches in the state. From the discipline his teams play at both ends of the floor to the development of the players in the program to the preparation and attention to detail that is so transparent, Benet has been a model of extraordinary consistency without elite level talent.

Jerrel Oliver’s early success

An overlooked story this season has been the job Jerrel Oliver has done in his first season at Hyde Park.

The highlight thus far was last week’s stunning overtime upset over rival Kenwood.

If anyone is paying attention, Hyde Park is right near the top of the state’s toughest conference, thanks to that win over Kenwood. The Thunderbirds are 7-2 in the Public League’s Red-South/Central and 19-5 overall.

There were a few solid pieces in place, namely a backcourt highlighted by seniors Cameron Wiliford and Damarion Morris. Plus, the rise of 6-7 junior Jurrell Baldwin, a transfer from Homewood-Flossmoor, has been a big addition. However, year one is never easy for any coach in establishing a system and culture on the fly.

Oliver spent many years under his uncle, Mike Oliver, as an assistant at Curie while also being heavily involved in the club basketball scene. So there is a model to follow that he’s familiar with in terms of building and maintaining a consistent winning program in the Chicago Public League.

Hyde Park is oozing with potential as a basketball program. With so much coaching turnover in recent years, stability has been needed. Oliver hopefully can provide that. And with Oliver’s mindset and approach, he’s a coach who has a real chance of raising the program to levels many have expected Hyde Park to reach.

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