50 After 50: No. 4 Saukees combine transfer from Indiana, stifling defense and veteran coach into state championship squad

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 4 — 1990-91 Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Tony Baker was getting his first taste of basketball in the state of Indiana during the winter of 1988, and he loved it.

“I was the only freshman to dress for the JV team, and I was the only sophomore to dress varsity at Washington (a city of about 11,500 people in the middle of a triangle between St. Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville),” Baker said. “I remember my sophomore year … I played against Damon Bailey (who Indiana coach Bobby Knight famously recruited as an eighth grader) when we played Bedford North Lawrence. We had a big tournament in our gym that seated 7,100 people. It was one of the largest in the country at the time.

“I was obviously entrenched there, learning, growing and looking forward to the future.”

Baker’s father, however, accepted a job as the pastor of a church in Nebo, a village of abut 400 people in southern Pike County in Illinois. The family moved to their new home during the Christmas break, and Baker joined the basketball team at Pittsfield High School.

“His coach said Tony was really going to be a really good player,” Pittsfield coach Dave Bennett said.

Baker, who played some during the second half of his sophomore season, said the transition to a new school was difficult.

“I didn’t know what to think when I got there, but I started learning really quick that Coach Bennett is great coach with a long history there,” he said. “I started learning about the Saukees and their history and how many tournaments they had won and how many (Bennett) had won. It was pretty impressive.”

Baker was impressive himself as a junior, earning all-state recognition from the Associated Press. He led the team in scoring at 17.8 points per game as the Saukees reached the Class A state tournament for the eighth time in school history. Pittsfield, ranked No. 2 in the state, lost just one game during the regular season but fell 74-50 to Norris City-Omaha-Enfield in the quarterfinals.

Point guard David Bess and forward Joe Jennings graduated from that team, but Baker’s return — along with several other seniors — had Pittsfield buzzing again about another potential return to Champaign.

“I remember the pressure,” Baker said. “I mean, it was crazy. There was a lot of pressure put on us. I mean, we had three starters coming back, but we lost Bess. He was great and just a great playmaker with a lot of fire. He was a natural leader.”

As for Bennett, his goals each year never changed.

“I never thought much about (going to state) during the season,” he said. “It was always just trying to get better. Develop your skills, develop your awareness, have some team camaraderie. Play as hard as you can, as fast as you can, as smart as you can. That’s all you got to ask.”

Pittsfield opened the season by winning its first four games before losing to Chicago Dunbar 77-73 at home. After winning by one point against Quincy Notre Dame, the Saukees lost 46-43 to Winchester on a late 3-pointer.

Blowout victories over Louisiana (Mo.) and Jacksonville Routt gave Pittsfield a 7-2 record entering the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament. After an 11-day layoff, the Saukees routed Monmouth and Bushnell-Prairie City, then lost to eventual champion Canton 83-74 before rebounding to defeat East Peoria 67-48 for third place.

Pittsfield opened the new year with a 66-47 loss to Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin. Bad weather jumbled the Saukees’ schedule in January, and even after winning five straight games, they lost 59-55 to Southeastern at home on Jan. 31, then lost 73-61 at home again two days later to Quincy Notre Dame. The Raiders made 31 out of 40 free throws in the game, and sophomore guard Brad Hoyt had 13 points in just his second career start.

The Saukees had played seven games in 15 days, leaving Bennett little time for practice.

“We had to reschedule several games,” Bennett said. “There wasn’t much practice or preparation time for the teams. We lost couple of home games during that stretch. That happens. The losing wasn’t the concern. The concern was getting everybody back, healthy and ready to play, then just having a regular schedule of games.”

A foot injury sidelined Troy Taylor, a 6-foot-4 senior, for most of the rest of the season. Senior Josh Townley and sophomore Jamie Sweeting picked up most of Taylor’s time, with Townley starting alongside Baker, David Fox, David Marable and point guard Brian Feezel, who was guiding the team differently than Bess had the season before.

“Bess elevated the speed of our play (during the 1989-90 season),” Baker said. “That team my junior year was a quicker, higher-scoring team. Feezel was different. He was more of a strategic, general kind of player. We were just methodical.”

Pittsfield, ranked No. 4 in The Herald-Whig area poll, had a 16-6 record before running off a four-game winning streak against Beardstown, Warsaw, Calhoun and Central to close the regular season.

Baker was a repeat selection to the AP All-State team after averaging 19.6 points and 8.5 rebounds per game. Fox was adding 11 points per game, but Feezel was filling the stat sheet every night with averages of 11 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

“I know everybody wants the superstar big name and all that, but we were just five guys,” Baker said. “We could slow it down, run an offense and stay disciplined until we got the right shot. We just played really well together there.

“Coach deserves the credit for that. We were just kids. We had no idea what to do. He knew the game. He knew what players he had and how to get them to play. You don’t reflect on those things when you’re a kid in the middle of it. You’re just playing ball. Coach knew what he was doing and had game plans that fit our players and style.”

Sweeting, who had moved from Perry to Pittsfield after his freshman season, moved into the starting lineup when Townley was sick at the beginning of the regional tournament in Meredosia. Sweeting had 20 points and 12 rebounds in a semifinal victory over Griggsville, while Baker led the way with 28 points.

Pittsfield trailed Pleasant Hill by three points with six minutes left in the regional title game before rallying to win 50-47. Both Baker and Sweeting had 18 points.

“When I was coaching at Pittsfield, the regional week was the most stressful of all the weeks because you’re supposed to win,” Bennett said. “And the boys knew that.”

Townley returned to the team for the sectional, but Sweeting had grabbed the starting spot permanently.

“Jamie was playing some reserve time for us, and then we had a couple boys get hurt,” Bennett said. “Jamie stepped into the starting lineup for the last part of the season, and it was like the best basketball he played all year. He stayed right there in that starting spot, and it all worked out.”

Pittsfield clamped down defensively against Virginia in a 54-31 victory in the semifinals of the sectional at Petersburg. Feezel led four players in double figures with 14 points. Baker then had 29 points in a 67-61 victory over North Greene in the championship game.

The Saukees avenged the earlier loss to Southeastern by ending the Suns’ 26-game winning streak in a 61-44 victory in the super-sectional at Macomb’s Western Hall. It was the ninth time Pittsfield had advanced to the super-sectional. It lost in the state quarterfinals in 1980, 1985 and 1990.

“The guys were locked in that night,” Bennett said.

The field for the Class A state tournament was full of teams that had pulled off upsets along the way. Only one team ranked in the 16 teams in the final Class A state poll — No. 13 Rockford Lutheran — had survived to reach Assembly Hall. The Crusaders had a starting lineup of three players 6-foot-7 or taller.

So, of course, that was Pittsfield’s opponent in the quarterfinals.

“When you get Champaign … well, this may or may not be politically correct, but you’re playing for one spot,” Bennett said. “The draw decides the rest of it. Rockford Lutheran was really, really good. Our guys just worked and worked really hard to do the best they could to guard them and took some charges. Then we counteracted their size by driving the ball, and we shot lots of free throws.

“Like it or not, that was really the championship game.”

Pittsfield won 77-66, with Baker scoring 28 points and Feezel adding 19.

The Saukees played defense like few teams ever in a state tournament the following day. Williamsville entered the semifinals averaging 70 points per game, but Pittsfield rolled to a 42-25 victory.

In the title game against Seneca, Illinois State-bound Mark Aubry scored 26 points, but he missed 24 out of 35 shots. Pittsfield trailed for nearly all of the first three quarters, but Baker had 15 points and 14 rebounds in a 45-35 victory. Click here to watch the state championship game on YouTube.

“The score looks really bad because we couldn’t make a three-foot shot in the first half,” Bennett said. “But we only gave up 16 points in the first half. So I told the boys at halftime that if they only give up 16 points this second half, I’m pretty sure you’re going to win this game.

“That was a good team. Those guys were good. They lost some games, yeah, but come on. They were there when it came time to get it.”

Pittsfield became the first team to win the super-sectional in Macomb and go on to win a state championship since the IHSA implemented the two-class system in 1972.

“It was surreal,” Baker said. “I mean, even today, 30 years later, I’m still talking about. It seems like every five years, some anniversary comes up. It just keeps going with you.

“I have three daughters. One is married, one is getting married, and the other is graduating from high school. My daughters would tell their boyfriends, ‘My dad was a real big basketball player,’ then tell them we won the state championship. Those boys’ jaws would hit the ground. You realize then there aren’t very many people that who say that. I got to walk off the court and hold the trophy and put the net around my neck.”

Baker now lives in Angola, Ind., about 30 minutes north of Fort Wayne and 10 minutes from the Ohio and Michigan borders. He is the lead pastor of the Gateway Church of the Nazarene and also helps run a couple of family businesses.

Bennett is retired from teaching and coaching but still lives in Pittsfield. He drives to Centralia occasionally to watch his youngest son, Lee, and assistant coach Brad Goewey, another Pittsfield graduate, coach at practice. However, he doesn’t watch the games.

“I just can’t handle that,” he said.

He called winning a state championship “satisfying.”

“If you stay after something long enough, and you have enough good players, and you do things the way we were doing things, I knew it would eventually work out,” Bennett said.

“I remember playing golf one day with a guy who had coached against Pittsfield. He said to me, ‘Do you remember the game that we almost beat you guys?’ And I said to him, ‘I don’t want to sound arrogant, I don’t want to sound cocky, and I don’t want to sound boastful, but I’m sorry. I don’t remember that game. However, had you beat us, I assure you, I would remember.’

“Now every time I see my players, that’s all we talk about — the good times. When I see them, they’ve always got a smile. If they bring up a loss, that’s their problem. You will not hear about them from me.”