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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
The Arcola girls’ basketball team celebrates after beating Tuscola 58-57 to win a Class 1A regional championship on Thursday night in Tuscola. It was the first regional title for the Purple Riders since 2015.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. Congratulations to Charlie Flores of the Hoopeston Area boys’ wrestling team and Anna Vasey of the Unity girls’ wrestling team. The pair is our latest high school Athletes of the Week, powered by Copper Creek Contractors. Read more about the duo in Monday’s News-Gazette.
➜ 2. The News-Gazette’s annual Faces of the Spring event recognizing hundreds of area high school athletes is just two days away. Coaches and athletic directors, please email me questions if you have any about Sunday’s event in Champaign.
➜ 3. A total of six area high school girls’ basketball programs — Arcola, Cissna Park, Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley, Salt Fork, Sullivan and Watseka ± won either Class 2A or 1A regional championships on Thursday night, keeping their seasons going into next week.
Champaign native JaMonte Williams, right, is Parkland’s leading scorer at 14.5 points per game.
Numbers game: 15
home wins in 15 home games this season for the No. 6 Parkland men’s basketball team. The Cobras (24-2) will close out the home portion of their regular-season schedule at 3 p.m. Saturday against struggling Lincoln Land (3-22) at the the Donald C. Dodds Jr. Athletic Complex in Champaign.
Illinois forward Ben Humrichous finished with 13 points in the Illini’s 95-74 loss at No. 11 Wisconsin on Tuesday night at the Kohl Center in Madison, Wis. It was Illinois’ seventh loss in the last 12 games with the Illini taking a one-game break from Big Ten play to face No. 3 Duke on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Illinois vs. No. 3 Duke men’s basketball. The ninth meeting between the two programs — Duke leads 5-3 — happens for the first time in New York when they tip off at 7 p.m. Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
➜ 2. Urbana boys’ swimming and diving sectional. Win an event and clinch a spot in the IHSA state meet next weekend at FMC Natatorium in Westmont. Or make a state-qualifying time. That’s what is at stake on Saturday during the postseason meet held at the Urbana Indoor Aquatic Center.
➜ 3. Mahomet-Seymour at Danville girls’ basketball. Friday night’s winner moves on to the Class 3A Chatham Glenwood Sectional on Tuesday night.
Ben Hankes with his two children: Eliza and Beau.
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Mahomet-Seymour girls’ track and field coach Ben Hankes:
➜ 1. My favorite sports team is … the Chicago Bears.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … Boo Schexnayder, Glenn Mills and Joe Newton.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … unfocused warmup at practice and/or excessive warmup on meet days by athletes.