On Wednesday, Feb. 28, The York Dukes basketball team headed to Curie high school to face off against Riverside-Brookfield in the IHSA Regional semi-finals. The game went into overtime, but it slipped away in the final seconds as R-B hit a shot at the buzzer to advance onto the regional championship game.

While the season had ended with a tough loss, that didn’t necessarily make the season a disappointment. The Dukes finished second in the West Suburban Silver Conference with a 7-4 record, behind only Oak Park-River Forest who finished undefeated in the conference at 12-0.

“This season has taught me a lot about being apart of a real team,” sophomore Nate Shockey said. “We all formed a special bond together. We had a team goal at the beginning of the season and that was to make a run in the state playoffs. We were really determined to be successful this season and it was tough on everyone to go out the way we did.”

For the seniors, this was their last time stepping onto the court in a York uniform. To play for this program all four years is something that takes a lot of dedication to the coaches and to the game itself. Only four seniors were able to achieve this over their time at York.

“While the season didn’t end the way we had hoped, it was a really fun year,” senior Danny Morrissey said. “We had a great group of guys and we all got along both on and off the court. All of my coaches and teammates have been hard workers and have helped me throughout my time in this program.”

This year York consisted of eight juniors at the varsity and junior varsity levels, many of which will be returning to make a longer run in next year’s playoffs.