Sun-Times file

The gunman fired shots from an apartment building in the 4000 block of West Lawrence Avenue, police said.

A gunman surrendered to police Monday morning after allegedly opening fire from the second floor of an apartment in North Mayfair on the Northwest Side, police said.

The shots were fired around 1:20 a.m. in the 4000 block of West Lawrence Avenue, Chicago police said.

A SWAT team was deployed surrounded the building for several hours. The man eventually turned himself into police, who recovered a rifle from the home, police said.

No injuries were reported.

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Brooks’ Tim Taiwo (5) reacts during a game against Bogan. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

All the preview stories as we get ready for the upcoming season

It’s almost here. The first real, complete basketball season in two years tips off on Monday. There’s a full slate of Thanksgiving tournaments and holiday tournaments planned.

We’ll have conference showdowns and weekend shootouts again. Most importantly, the crowds will be back. Masks are currently still required, but that’s a small price to pay to get high school basketball back.

Check back here regularly for all the latest preview stories. We’ll be posting regularly throughout the week. There will be several stories, the season debut of No Shot Clock, the preseason Super 25 and the traditional preseason list of the area’s top 50 players.

The games begin on Nov. 22 and the season will finish, for the first time in many, years down in Champaign. It will be the debut of the Illinois High School Association’s new state finals format. All four classes will play their title games on Saturday, March 12.

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Oswego East’s Patrick Robinson (1) maintains control of the ball as Joliet West’s Ashawn Burbridge (10) defends. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

Here are five sleeper teams to keep an eye on over the course of the 2021-22 season.

These teams may not be ranked in the preseason Sun-Times Super 25. They may not be receiving any preseason love or fanfare. But overlooking them could prove to be problematic.

Here are five sleeper teams to keep an eye on over the course of the 2021-22 season.

Bartlett

After winning the Upstate Eight Conference last season and finishing 12-4 overall, keep an eye on the Hawks, who return three all-conference performers.

Senior Conrad Luczynski is an intriguing player to watch this season. The mammoth 7-2 senior continues to show improvement and gained confidence last year as he averaged 15 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and three assists a game.

Sophomore point guard Kelton McEwen was one of the most productive freshmen in the state a year ago, putting up 14 points and three assists a game while shooting 40 percent from three.

Ian Smith is the third returning player in double figures as the 6-2 senior averaged 14 points a game and shot 39 percent from the three-point line, while 6-2 sophomore Nathan Scearce came off the bench to average five points a game.

If Bartlett can replace the role-playing of last year’s seniors, who rebounded, defended and played with some grit, the Hawks can repeat in the Upstate Eight and hold off upstart Larkin, East Aurora and a much-improved Glenbard East.

Loyola

The Ramblers have been so consistent in recent years as coach Tom Livatino has built a very respected basketball program — and one that has enjoyed a lot of success and a ton of wins. Loyola won a sectional title in 2014 and then averaged 25 wins a year with four regional championships from 2017-2020 before going 14-7 a year ago.

While Loyola has been a top 25 regular over the years, it will enter this season an under-the-radar team. But it’s a team that could surprise and play the role of spoiler in the Chicago Catholic League where there are clear, ranked favorites.

There are a couple of players with starting experience, including senior Max Garcia, a versatile 6-3 hybrid type of player. He’s a post who sees the floor and an offense can be run through. Senior Connor Casper is a 6-5 guard who started a few games last season and brings length and scoring potential.

But keep an eye on junior point guard Alex Engro who is poised for a breakout year.

Loyola has done a masterful job of restocking the pipeline over and over with similar players. This team is no exception but will just need to find itself and overcome a lack of experience in the early going.

Lemont

Behind the scenes, while playing only South Suburban Conference games a year ago during Covid, Lemont put together a 12-1 record.

Also while no one was paying attention, sophomore Nojus Indrusaitis emerged as one of the top basketball prospects in the state.

Put the returning talent together with the winning of last year and Lemont has a chance to burst on the scene this season.

The 6-4 Indrusaitis is a high-major prospect after averaging a whopping 19 points a game as a freshman last season and showcasing his scoring ability on the club basketball circuit in the spring and summer. Even at this young age, Indrusaitis is a game-changer.

The Castillo brothers — sophomores Rokas and Matas — are a fun, competitive pair of guards who gained valuable experience last season. Rokas is a returning all-conference player while Matas averaged 10 points a game.

Junior Miles Beachum is a 6-3 junior who transferred in and should provide an immediate boost for coach Rick Runaas.

There is a lack of size, so rebounding and interior defense could prove to be an issue Lemont will have to deal with. And, yes, the Injuns probably are a year away from being a potential top 25 team. But it’s a team that can put pressure on opposing defenses right now with its shooting, should put points on the board in bunches and win a lot of games.

Oswego East

The Southwest Prairie Conference is pretty wide open. But Oswego East just may be the team to beat with the return of rugged wing Patrick Robinson and multi-dimensional Mekhi Lowery.

The Wolves won 20-plus games in each of the three seasons prior to last season’s 10-3 Covid-shortened season. This team has the potential to be as good as any of those teams, including the 24-win regional championship team in 2018-19.

There are three returning starters, but the starting point is the 1-2 punch of Robinson and Lowery.

The strong, athletic Robinson is headed to Division II Missouri-St. Louis. He’s a 6-4 freight train in the open court, a finisher at the rim and whose perimeter jumper continues to improve. Whether he becomes an impactful player on the glass and defensively will go a long way in whether this team can surpass expectations.

After showcasing a vast array of talent last season as a sophomore, the 6-5 Lowery continued to blossom this offseason and has put himself on the Division I radar with his length, skill and versatile scoring on the perimeter.

DeVon Oregon and Darren Oregon are a pair of 6-0 guards and returning starters in the backcourt. Senior Gavin Garcon, 6-5 junior Ryan Johnson and junior point guard Joey Patti will provide added depth.

St. Charles North

Coach Tom Poulon has a variety of weapons, including a surplus of three-point shooters, that make the North Stars a legit threat to win a very competitive DuKane Conference.

Seniors Ethan Marlowe, Max Love and Jude Love all bring a ton of experience. They were part of a North Stars team two years ago that won 24 games and were set to play for a sectional championship before Covid shut everything down.

Marlowe is a versatile 6-8 big man who can stretch the floor with his jumper out to the three-point line — he shot 41 percent from beyond the arc. He did a little of everything last year as a junior, averaging 14.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and nearly two blocks a game.

Max Love brings some length and athleticism. But what the 6-4 wing does best is shoot the basketball. He returns after putting up 9.1 points and 6.5 rebounds a game.

The 6-4 Jude Love (6.3 ppg, 5.4 rpg) is another wing with size, 6-3 senior Justin Hughes is a dangerous shooter, 6-4 senior Ned Hayes is another shooting threat with athleticism, and junior point guard Mason Siegfried gained experience last season off the bench.

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St. Ignatius’ Kolby Gilles (32) practices with his team on November 8, 2021. | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times

They aren’t accustomed to winning championships, advancing in March or reaching the pinnacle of the State Finals. But the opportunity is there for all of them to flirt with history within their own respective programs.

When it comes to high school basketball we’ve been talking with these negative connotations for the better part of the past 20 months: unfortunate, ill-fated, unlucky.

But it’s time to turn that frown upside down, especially for a few select basketball programs across the Chicago area who have been building towards this 2021-22 season and — fingers crossed — it will not be a season that’s dismantled or wiped away.

Unlike last season where so many teams were unlucky and felt the wrath of a pandemic, these are the teams that are lucky to have a mostly regular type of season ahead of them. These are the teams who have zeroed in on and had their eye on this particular season for various reasons.

They aren’t accustomed to winning championships, advancing in March or reaching the pinnacle of the State Finals. But the opportunity is there for all of them to flirt with history within their own respective programs.

Glenbard West

Everything has come together and then some for a program with just one sectional championship in school history.

The John Shurna-led Hilltoppers won a sectional in 2007 before falling to Lockport in the super-sectional. But the success since then has been very sporadic, particularly when it comes to the postseason.

The season must still be played out, but this senior group, headed by Gonzaga-bound Braden Huff and Princeton recruit Caden Pierce, anchors what is the best team in school history. And everything they could possibly want to achieve is attainable and in front of them. That includes a potential state championship run.

There is enormous, difference-making size with the 6-10 Huff, 6-5 Pierce, 6-5 Bobby Durkin, 6-7 Ryan Renfro and tough 6-3 Paxton Warden. There might not be a more versatile, jack-of-all-trades player in the state than Pierce who can defend any position at a high level, initiate an offense and score.

But it’s the ultra-skilled Huff who is the bonafide star and matchup nightmare. He can score around the basket and stick a three-pointer. And with his elite passing, good luck doubling or focusing your defense on Huff.

The parts go together so well, starting with two unselfish stars headed to play Division I basketball in Huff and Pierce. There is shooting with Durkin and a tough, blue collar duo in Renfro and Warden.

Yorkville Christian

First of all, this is a Class 1A school with a Duke recruit. That tends to carry a small school to big places.

Yorkville Christian hasn’t even been around for a decade, opening its doors in 2014, so there isn’t any long-suffering basketball fans or droughts of success. But making the most of having Jaden Schutt, the state’s top-ranked senior prospect, is imperative.

But coach Aaron Sovern’s team is more than Schutt, an elite shooter and scorer (26 ppg last season).

A trio of returning guards join Schutt on the perimeter. Seniors Tyler Burrows (17 ppg), KJ Vasser (17 ppg) and junior Brayden Long (14 ppg) are all capable scorers and shooters. Keep an eye on the rise and development of sophomores Jehvion Starwood, a 6-2 guard who gained some experience last season as a freshman, and 6-0 guard Dayvion Johnson.

Sovern has beefed up the schedule once again as the Mustangs will play a number of larger schools in preparation for March. That is yet another reason why there might not be a bigger favorite in any class than Yorkville Christian in Class 1A.

Burlington Central

The Rockets have won a lot of games over the past six years, averaging 26 wins a year from 2015-16 to 2019-20 before going 16-1 in the shortened covid season. But they’ve never won a sectional championship and have just 10 regional titles in 55 years.

This team, however, has all the makings of ending that sectional drought.

There is an abundance of experience and leadership. There are five players who will be starting their third or fourth year of varsity basketball, starting with the perimeter senior trio of 6-2 Gavin Sarvis (14.5 ppg), 6-2 Carson Seyller (11.1 ppg) and 6-3 Zac Schmidt (10.6 ppg). Nick Carpenter is a fourth double-figure scorer who put up 10.6 points and 6.2 rebounds a game.

Arguably the most intriguing player is promising 6-7 junior Andrew Sharnowski, who has a tremendous upside and already has two years of varsity experience.

St. Rita

In fairness, this probably isn’t just about the 2021-22 season. This could just be the start for a program that has a contingent of players who are capable of doing some special and memorable things over the next three years.

But you never want to waste an opportunity with the type of talent that’s in the St. Rita stable, even if it’s still very young.

This much we know: this is a program without a single sectional championship in its long history and it’s a team that will be much better in March when they are trying to win its first.

The hype this program and its highly-regarded players have received does put a bulls-eye on their back — even without having won anything yet and being so young. But the Mustangs have three of the top five prospects in the sophomore class, including the two at the top: 6-9 James Brown and 6-8 Illinois commit Morez Johnson.

The backcourt could be rock solid with up-and-coming sophomore Jaedin Reyna and junior Kaiden Space, a pair of Division I prospects who will be interchangeable.

Add one of the best freshmen in the state, 6-3 Melvin Bell, and St. Rita has a weapon at every position on the floor.

Will they mature? Will they buy in? Will a leader and go-to player emerge? How big of strides can a young team make in four months?

There are a lot of questions for a top team that will be fun to watch.

St. Ignatius

When we were last watching meaningful high school basketball — win-or-go-home basketball — it was March of 2020. And St. Ignatius was fresh off a sectional upset win over DePaul Prep and primed and ready for a sectional title game against Fenwick before Covid shut everything down.

With another year of seasoning under their belt, albeit a shortened 2020-21 season, puts the Wolfpack in unfamiliar territory: preseason top 10 team and one of the Chicago Catholic League favorites.

St. Ignatius has consistently been solid to good for a few decades. There was the only sectional title in 2000 and five regional championships since then. But the potential is there for a true breakthrough season with preseason expectations high and a deep Class 3A run in March realistic.

The senior tandem of versatile 6-3 guard AJ Redd and 6-5 wing Kolby Gilles, an Air Force recruit, are veterans who have been around. They are stat-sheet stuffers who combined to average 21 points, 11.5 rebounds and over four assists a game last season as juniors.

Richard Barron is one of the hot names in the junior class after averaging 11.3 points and 5.2 rebounds a game last season. The big-bodied shooter has added several mid-major offers in recent months and does damage with his three-point shooting and strong frame.

Look for 6-8 junior Jackson Kotecki to make a nice jump and provide added impact with his size and developing face-up ability.

The supporting cast is deep, including senior guard Miles Casey who returns after not playing last season. Senior Noah Davis is a leader and true glue guy, senior Kyle McIntyre will space the floor with his shooting and junior guard Emmet O’Shaughnessy will contribute.

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An armed police officer holds a breaching shotgun, used to blast the hinges off a door, at an address in Rutland Avenue in Sefton Park, after an explosion at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital in Liverpool, England, Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. British police arrested three men under terrorism laws Sunday after a car exploded outside the hospital, killing one man and injuring another. | AP

Sunday’s explosion at Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a passenger, authorities said. The male passenger died in the explosion and fire that followed, and the taxi driver was injured.

LONDON — The U.K. government on Monday increased the terror level to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely. The decision followed a taxi explosion outside a hospital in England that killed a man.

Russ Jackson, the head of Counterterrorism Policing in northwest England, said Sunday’s explosion at Liverpool Women’s Hospital was caused by “the ignition of an explosive device” that was brought into the vehicle by a passenger. The male passenger died in the explosion and fire that followed, and the taxi driver was injured.

Police were investigating the motivation of the incident and if anyone else was involved.

Home Secretary Priti Patel told reporters that the threat level increase came in the context of being the second terrorist incident in the space of a month. She did not elaborate.

“Our security and intelligence services prevent all sorts of acts, day in, day out,” Patel said. “And of course, they understand the landscape, they see context, they see all sorts of things that keep our country safe and secure every single day and that work will continue.”

Three men in their 20s were arrested elsewhere in the city under the Terrorism Act on Sunday, and a fourth was detained on Monday. All are believed to be “associates” of the dead passenger, police said.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to chair a meeting of the government’s COBRA crisis committee on Monday in response to the blast.

Suspicions about a motive for the explosion have been aroused by the timing — just before 11 a.m. on Remembrance Sunday, the moment people across Britain hold services in memory of those killed in wars.

Jackson said investigators had not found a link to remembrance events, “but it is a line of inquiry we are pursuing.”

“Although the motivation for this incident is yet to be understood, given all the circumstances, it has been declared a terrorist incident,” he said at a press briefing.

He said the passenger had been picked up by the cab a 10-minute drive away and asked to be taken to the hospital, where the explosion occurred. The driver, named locally as David Perry, managed to escape from the car. He was treated in hospital and released.

Police said officers had searched two addresses in the city linked to the passenger, and found “significant items” at one of them,

Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson said the taxi driver locked the doors of his cab so the passenger couldn’t leave. Police did not confirm that account.

“The taxi driver, in his heroic efforts, has managed to divert what could have been an absolutely awful disaster at the hospital,” Anderson told the BBC.

The prime minister also said the driver appeared to have behaved “with incredible presence of mind and bravery.”

Nick Aldworth, a former senior terrorism investigator in Britain, said the taxi appeared to have sustained “a lot of fire damage with very little blast damage.”

He said that “whatever was in that vehicle was either a low yield or didn’t work properly, or possibly an incendiary. So I think it’s very much open to debate at the moment about what has happened.”

Until Monday’s announcement Britain’s official threat level from terrorism was “substantial,” the middle rung on a five-point scale, meaning an attack is likely. The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre sets the threat level based on intelligence about international terrorism at home and overseas.

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Teven Jenkins had August back surgery. | David Banks, AP Photos

The second-round pick had back surgery in August.

Teven Jenkins, the rookie tackle who went from presumed starter to injured reserve without participating in a single training camp practice, is back.

Monday, the Bears opened a three-week window during which Jenkins can practice. The team must either activate him during that three-week period or return him to IR for the rest of the season.

Jenkins figures to take most — if not all — of the three weeks before returning to game action. The team has invested a lot into Jenkins, though, and certainly wants to get a look at him before the season ends. It’s far to wonder, though, on which side he’d play.

Coach Matt Nagy wouldn’t say Monday whether he’d play on the left side — where the Bears planned for him to start before he underwent back surgery in August — or on the right. Jason Peters, 39, has been solid at left tackle. Larry Borom, another rookie, has garnered positive reviews at right tackle in the last two games.

“We’ll have to really get him in here and see where he’s at,” Nagy said. “It’s been a while since Teven’s put the pads on, so we’ll start there. That will be exciting for us to see where he’s at. I know he’s really anxious and excited to get out there. …

“Now we get to work through and see where he’s at conditioning-wise, physically where he’s at. It’s just gonna be, honestly, really, an hour-by-hour, day-by-day process with him. But it’s definitely a good thing to have, and we’re excited to get him out there.”

The Bears traded their second-, third- and sixth-round picks to the Panthers for the No. 39 overall pick, which they used to draft Jenkins, and a fifth-rounder. Within days, the team cut left tackle Charles Leno and installed Jenkins, who played mostly on the right side at Oklahoma State, at the position.

A back injury prevented Jenkins from playing a second of training camp. Shortly after the Bears agreed to sign Peters, they said Jenkins would have surgery.

In recent weeks, Jenkins was spotted running hills during practice. One week ago, he went through extensive workouts at Heinz Field hours before the Bears played the Steelers.

“We’ll see how he is,” Nagy said. “He’s a competitor. You all saw that when we drafted him. You see the type of mean streak he has. You see how much he loves football, how much his teammates really appreciate him — and he appreciates them.”

Nagy said that safety Deon Bush will begin his practice window Monday, too. He was put on IR with a quad injury last month.

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SWAT officers were called after a person opened fire from the second floor of an apartment Monday morning on the Northwest Side. | Sun-times file

The gunman fired shot from an apartment building in the 4000 block of West Lawrence Avenue, police said.

SWAT officers responded early Monday after a gunman opened fire from the second floor of an apartment in North Mayfair on the Northwest Side.

The shots were fired in the 4000 block of West Lawrence Avenue and police remained on the scene as of 3:40 a.m., police said.

No injuries have been reported, and no other details were immediately available.

This is a developing story, check back for details.

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