Shane Hulsey, Sports Writer
HAMILTON, Ill. — The West Hancock boys basketball team’s second-half plan was quite simple — put Mercer County away. The Titans went on a 9-2 run in the first three minutes of the second half and outscored the Golden Eagles 26-11 in the third quarter to run away with a 69-31 victory Wednesday night at…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — Karly Peters diplomatically handled the question of whether Tristan Pieper fouled her. “I don’t know,” said Peters, a senior guard on the Central-Southeastern girls basketball team. “I mean, I think so, but it doesn’t really matter now.” With Quincy Notre Dame leading CSE 37-34 and three seconds left in Tuesday’s West…
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LEWISTOWN, Mo. — The 24-hour period from when Ashton Jaco woke up on Nov. 30 through the morning of Dec. 1 was possibly the most eventful and memorable of her life. The Highland girls basketball coach guided the Cougars to a 55-31 victory over Belleville Althoff in Quincy on Nov. 30, although she hadn’t expected…
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QUINCY — Jordan Shelton and the John Wood Community College men’s basketball team shook off whatever rust they may have had. In Shelton’s first game of the year and the Trail Blazers’ first game in 21 days, Shelton scored 25 points and John Wood recorded its highest scoring game of the season in a 91-79…
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QUINCY — The missing pieces caught up to the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team against Danville Area Community College on Saturday. With three players injured, the Trail Blazers struggled to meet their halftime goals and saw a two-point deficit balloon to double figures as the Jaguars went on a 19-4 run to close…
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QUINCY — The Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team’s mission on Friday was simple — set the tone, not only for their West Central Conference game against Mendon Unity, but for the new calendar year and the grueling schedule that lies ahead. The Raiders did just that in dispatching the Mustangs 67-20. “You can’t be…
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BEARDSTOWN, Ill. — For the first 41 years of the Beardstown Lady Tiger Classic, the Pittsfield girls basketball team had never so much as reached the championship game. Now, in the 42nd edition, the Saukees have a tournament title to their name, and they will ring in the new year with a zero still in…
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MACOMB, Ill. — The West Hancock boys basketball team took Rockridge’s punches. The Titans’ counterpunches came too late. The Titans could not crawl out of a 20-point deficit, and the Rockets won their second consecutive Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament title by defeating the Titans 66-59 on Saturday night at Western Hall. “We woke up a little…
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MACOMB, Ill. — The Brown County boys basketball team got accustomed to the early wakeup call. It resulted in the Hornets bringing home some hardware. After playing at 9 a.m. all three days of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament, the Hornets finally got to play an afternoon game Saturday, winning the consolation championship by defeating defeating…
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MACOMB, Ill. — Macomb senior guard Braden Holthaus was unusually tired after the first quarter of Saturday’s Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament third place game against No. 2 seed Peoria Christian. “I was exhausted,” Holthaus said. “That usually doesn’t happen.” The fourth-seeded Bombers playing their fourth game in 48 hours likely had something to do with that…
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MACOMB, Ill. — It was only fitting that Ethan Carlisle stepped to the free-throw line in the final seconds of overtime and put the finishing touches on a fifth-place finish for the Illini West boys basketball team at the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament. His heroics at the end of regulation were the reason the Chargers were…
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MACOMB, Ill. — West Hancock boys basketball coach Jeff Dahl barely recognized his team over the first quarter and change of Friday’s Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament quarterfinal game against Eureka. “It looked like we were disinterested, and I don’t know why because we have to win this to go on,” Dahl said. “It was really irritating.”…
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MACOMB, Ill. — Locked in. Those were the first words Macomb boys basketball coach Jeremy Anderson used to describe his team’s defensive performance against Mercer County in Friday’s Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament quarterfinal game at Western Hall. “I thought the effort defensively was outstanding,” Anderson said. After Mercer County shot 72.7 percent from the field in…
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MACOMB, Ill. — As the shots kept falling, all Tre Niederman could do was tip his cap. “There’s really nothing you can do when they don’t miss,” said Niederman, a senior guard on the Illini West boys basketball team. Rockridge put on a shooting clinic in the third quarter of Friday’s second round matchup with…
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MACOMB, Ill. — West Hancock sophomore guard Hunter Froman brimmed with confidence when asked about the Titans solidifying their position as the No. 1 seed in the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament. “I’ve heard people talking about how there’s no real difference between the top four seeds, but I think that’s wrong,” Froman said. “I think we’re…
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MACOMB, Ill. — The Macomb boys basketball team imposed its will when it mattered most. By doing so, the Bombers created the separation they needed to advance to the second round of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament. The Bombers trailed Canton (Ill.) 28-26 with 35 seconds left in the third quarter and took a 30-28 lead…
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NAUVOO, Ill. — When Doug Siegfried watches his nephew Lewis Siegfried play for the West Hancock boys basketball team, it’s almost as if he’s stepped into a time machine. He cannot help but feel like he is watching his brother — Lewis’ father Mike Siegfried — play for Nauvoo-Colusa in the 1990s. “He reminds me…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — It was a no-brainer for Karly Peters. The same goes for Ali Schwagmeyer-Belger. When Schwagmeyer-Belger was hired as the head coach of the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team in June, Peters’ decision on where to play college basketball became much easier. “I knew right when she got the job…
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ABINGDON, Ill. — The West Hancock boys basketball team proved something to Titans coach Jeff Dahl and the rest of Illinois on Saturday. The Titans belong in the upper echelon of Class 2A. “This game should inspire them to think that we can get to the top,” Dahl said. The Titans went toe-to-toe with Peoria…
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ABINGDON, Ill. — Two things had to change this time around, and they did. In the 2022 Great Western Shootout at Abingdon-Avon High School, the Scales Mound boys basketball team handled Macomb 50-31. “I thought a couple years ago, we were pretty good,” said Bombers coach Jeremy Anderson, whose team went 25-6 that season. “We…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Hudson Bock could not have imagined two more polar opposite defensive performances from the Palmyra boys basketball team against Mendon Unity on Friday. “Our defense was really good in the second half, but it was absolutely awful in the first half,” Bock said. After taking a 39-35 lead into halftime, the Panthers…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Anna James’ confidence is growing, and her performance Friday provided sound evidence of that. The Palmyra sophomore guard made six 3-pointers for her 18 points and provided a spark that catapulted the Panthers to a 55-29 win over Unity. “I’ve really been trying to work on my confidence, and when I get…
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QUINCY — The first half was far from a masterpiece, but the final product looked significantly better. The Quincy High School girls basketball team put the pedal to the metal in the second half of Thursday’s Western Big 6 Conference tilt with United Township, outscoring the Panthers 36-10 in the final 16 minutes on its…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — It was as if Mason Smith had flipped a switch. As soon as the Palmyra senior guard’s go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:50 left in the fourth quarter of the Panthers’ clash with Quincy Notre Dame on Tuesday swished through the net and the home crowd erupted, Smith could feel the electricity pulsing through…
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PALMYRA, Mo. — Tristan Pieper never flinched. After Pieper, a junior forward on the Quincy Notre Dame girls basketball team, watched the Raiders’ 27-8 lead over Palmyra dwindle to 31-27 thanks to a 16-point second quarter by Panthers point guard Clare Williams capped off by a buzzer-beating half court shot, she knew the Raiders would…
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QUINCY — From the opening tip, the Monroe City girls basketball team’s game plan was evident — feed the ball to Audri Youngblood to set the tone in the post and use pressure defense to discombobulate Burlington (Iowa) Notre Dame. The Panthers accomplished each of those tasks in a 56-22 demolition of the Nikes in…
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MONROE CITY, Mo. — The shot was as clutch as the roar that followed was deafening. The crowd inside the Monroe City High School gym erupted when Ryan Moss, a senior guard on the Monroe City boys basketball team, drained a 3-pointer to tie Palmyra at 42 with 26 seconds left in the fourth quarter…
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MONROE CITY, Mo. — In last season’s Monroe City Tournament championship game, the South Shelby girls basketball team did not have the opportunity to respond to a buzzer beater at the end of regulation. This year, the Lady Birds got that chance, and they exacted some revenge in the process thanks in large part to…
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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Friday started just like any other day for Hannibal girls basketball coach Shawn Gaines. “I woke up at my normal time. I typically wake up about 4:30 a.m.,” Gaines said. “I went to exercise, then I came home.” When he returned home, though, the nerves were flowing a little faster than normal.…
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MONROE CITY Mo. — Two down, one to go. The Monroe City boys basketball team’s quest is not yet complete, but the second-seeded Panthers earned the right to play for the championship in the 100th Monroe City Basketball Tournament by dispatching Marion County 77-25 in Wednesday’s semifinal. The significance of the Panthers playing for the…
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