Muddy River Showcase: Illini West girls’ record-setting season comes complete with all-stars

The inaugural Muddy River Showcase is taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center. The Illinois vs. Missouri format for senior prep basketball players will feature a girls game at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door and all seating is general admission.

QUINCY — Grant Surprenant talked extensively throughout the Illini West girls basketball team’s 30-win season about the joy he had coaching this group.

He gets one more chance to battle alongside them.

Four players who helped the Chargers reach the Class 2A sectional semifinals and set the program’s single-season victory record will be part of the Illinois all-stars for the Muddy River Showcase, taking place June 18 at John Wood Community College’s Student Activity Center.

Surprenant, who has been at the helm of the Illini West program for 10 years, will coach the Illinois squad in the rivalry game against all-stars from Missouri. The girls game tips at 3 p.m. with the boys game to follow at 5 p.m.

Tickets will be $10 and sold at the door. All seats are general admission.

“It’s an honor to be able to coach them one last time and to be chosen to coach the Illinois squad,” Surprenant said. “I think everyone is really looking forward to this game and representing this area and Illinois in the process.”

Illini West’s Caydee Kirkham, the all-state point guard, will help run the Illinois attack. She averaged 18 points, 4.2 assists and 3.5 steals per game while setting Illini West career records for points (1,464), assists (410) and 3-pointers (204).

Kirkham is also an all-state legacy as her mother, Shannon Hickenbottom Short, played in a Missouri vs. Illinois affair in 1990.

The Chargers’ Hallie Ray, Abbie Johnson and Madi Cole also will be part of the Illinois squad. They helped Illini West go 30-3 and win the eighth regional title since the consolidation of Carthage, Dallas City and LaHarpe in 2007.

Joining the Chargers quartet will be Unity’s Brooklyn Stiefel, Brown County’s Gabby McGath, Central’s Libby Ippensen and Quincy High School’s Laci Novosel.

Stiefel helped the Mustangs reach the Class 1A sectional finals, McGath and the Hornets reached the Class 1A sectional semifinals, Ippensen was part of a Panthers’ squad that pushed Illini West to the brink in a regional championship game and Novosel and the Blue Devils finished second in the Western Big 6 Conference.