Shane Hulsey, Sports Writer
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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MONROE CITY, Mo. — Why? That is all Palmyra girls basketball coach Kelsey Stuart could think as she watched Highland eat away at the Panthers’ 19-point lead over the final 4 minutes, 45 seconds of Wednesday night’s semifinal in the 100th Monroe City Tournament. “Why did we decide to feel comfortable even though I warned…
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QUINCY — If that was the Quincy High School boys basketball team’s B — or even C — game, the rest of the Western Big 6 Conference must be shaking in their boots at the thought of the Blue Devils bringing their A game. The state-ranked Blue Devils led by as many as 50 points…
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CAMP POINT, Ill. — Lexi Niekamp has only played eight games for the Central-Southeastern girls basketball team, but the freshman guard already understands the Panthers’ standard. Niekamp also knew that despite leading 27-13 at halftime against Illini West on Monday, the Panthers did not meet that standard for a significant portion of that first half,…
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QUINCY — The Quincy High School girls basketball team executed the play. The shot just did not go in. The Blue Devils trailed Sterling 48-46 with six seconds left during Saturday’s Western Big 6 Conference clash at the QHS gym. On an inbounds play underneath the Sterling basket, Quincy sophomore guard Myley Longor got the…
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CANTON, Mo. — Ryan McKinney knew what was coming. He just had to stop it. With a second remaining in regulation and the Palmyra boys basketball team leading Canton 64-62, the Tigers were inbounding from under the Panthers’ basket in need of a basket to extend the game. Looming large above the pack in front…
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CANTON, Mo. — The Palmyra girls basketball team’s dynamic duo was extra dynamic on Friday. Seniors Clare Williams and Sydney Compton combined for all but three of Palmyra’s points as the Panthers outlasted Canton 54-49. Williams poured in 15 points in the first half and finished with 22 total. Compton caught fire in the second…
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QUINCY — The experience was everything Ralph Wires could have hoped for. To him, though, winning was the best part. The Quincy High School graduate, now a freshman guard on the Carl Sandburg College men’s basketball team, helped the Chargers down John Wood Community College 73-67 on Wednesday in his first collegiate game in his…
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QUINCY — The spark that spurred the John Wood Community College women’s basketball team’s second-half run against Carl Sandburg College on Wednesday was just as effective as it was unusual. With the Trail Blazers leading 62-60 in the waning seconds of the third quarter, Kylee Barry stole the ball from the Chargers’ Gabbie Vontz. Barry…
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HANNIBAL, Mo. — Peyton Pritchett waited in the shadows. He got his chance to step into the spotlight on Tuesday, and he delivered a riveting performance. Pritchett, a Hannibal junior wrestler in his first season on the varsity squad, won both of his matches at 150 pounds — one by pin and another highlighted by…
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MT. STERLING, Ill. — The Central-Southeastern girls basketball team didn’t need a pep talk. In fact, Panthers coach Matt Long had not spoken a word to his team from the moment they left the gym after their 56-37 loss to Breese Mater Dei on Saturday in the Pana Thanksgiving Tournament championship to when they took…
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MT. STERLING, Ill. — Brown County boys basketball coach Jeff Bottorff feared a championship hangover. The Hornets entered Monday’s game against Camp Point Central fresh off of a Beardstown Tournament championship in which they defeated Winchester West Central — the reigning Class 1A state champion — in Saturday’s title game and won four games in…
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