The junior class has taken plenty of heat this season. New stars have not emerged, and some of the top players have treaded water or taken steps backward.
On Friday in Lincolnshire, Rocco Pagliocca, one of the under-the-radar juniors in the area, led Stevenson to a 65-54 upset victory against No. 16 Waukegan and proved he’s a player to keep an eye on in the next six weeks.
Pagliocca scored 22 points and grabbed five rebounds. He emerged last season as a sophomore but missed a good chunk of this season with an injury.
‘‘It was now or never to get a win like this,’’ Pagliocca said.
He scored 10 points in the fourth quarter to help the Patriots hold off the Bulldogs for their biggest victory of the season.
Stevenson committed only eight turnovers and outrebounded the significantly taller Bulldogs.
Patriots coach Will Benson said 6-8 senior Atticus Richmond played his best game of the season with five points and 16 rebounds.
‘‘When we rebound, we’ve been so much better,’’ Stevenson senior Aidan Bardic said. ‘‘Atticus was huge. We needed every one of those rebounds.’’
Bardic, who recently became the Patriots’ seventh 1,000-point scorer, added 13 points and four steals. He’s committed to Winona (Minnesota) State.
‘‘This is how we can play if we stay consistent,’’ Bardic said. ‘‘This is a huge one for us. We can make a run if we do this, whether it is through the rest of the regular season or the playoffs.’’
Bardic isn’t a flashy scoring guard, but he’s solid with the ball, plays rugged defense and has key leadership intangibles.
‘‘[Waukegan] likes to speed teams up, so our whole game plan was to play at our pace and limit our turnovers,’’ Bardic said. ‘‘We played smart.’’
Stevenson (16-8, 7-2 North Suburban) led by 15 points at halftime, but Waukegan (17-6, 7-2) stormed back to tie the score at 44 on a basket by Xavi Granville with 48 seconds left in the third quarter.
‘‘After they tied it back up, we started making the extra pass again and finding each other,’’ Pagliocca said. ‘‘We realized it wasn’t going to be an easy win and they were going to fight.’’
Granville led the Bulldogs with 17 points. Juniors Simereon Carter and Jaali Rico Love each added 11.
‘‘It was nice to see us play together for that long of a stretch,’’ Benson said. ‘‘We’ve been talking about it all year. To see them trust each other was awesome to watch.’’
Waukegan knocked off Warren for the second time this season Tuesday. Like many of the most talented teams in the area, however, the Bulldogs go through peaks and valleys even during the same week.
‘‘Every game, we have a surge,’’ Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw said. ‘‘But if your surge is from 15 down to tie it, that is too much ground to cover. We have that spurtability, but if that is only getting you to a tie deep into the third quarter, you aren’t going to win against a good team.’’