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Sports Editor Matt Daniels with a look at what’s going on around the area:
The Holy Cross seventh-grade boys’ basketball team will play for an IESA Class 1A state championship on Thursday night against Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell at Normal Kingsley Junior High School. Members of the team, from left, are (front row) Eli Marino, Braden Ritter, David Surratt, John Fletcher and Colton Stonecipher, (back row) coach Rich Gibas, Brody Oliveira, Jax Gibas, Charlie Young, Michael Hartnett, AJ Benjamin and coach Shane Stonecipher.
Three reasons we love sports today
➜ 1. The Champaign Holy Cross seventh-grade boys’ basketball team will play for an IESA Class 1A state title on Thursday night. The Crusaders (25-2) meet Lincoln West Lincoln-Broadwell (28-1) at 7:30 p.m. at Kingsley Junior High School in Normal.
➜ 2. Three area eighth-grade boys’ basketball teams will play in the state tournament on Saturday after winning sectional championships on Monday night.
➜ 3. In Class 4A, Champaign Edison (23-2) tips off against Park Forest Michelle Obama STA (23-2) at 11:30 a.m. in Taylorville. In 2A, Milford (20-3) plays Green Valley Midwest Central (23-4) at 11:30 a.m. in Kankakee. And in 1A, Schlarman (13-6) plays Peoria St. Jude (25-2) at 11:30 a.m. in Warrensburg.
Shauna Green and her Illinois women’s basketball team will try to win their seventh straight game on Thursday night when the Illini host Penn State.
Numbers game: .667
winning percentage Shauna Green has during her first 90 games as the Illinois women’s basketball coach. That’s the best mark, in that time span, for a program that first started playing in 1974 and had nine coaches in its history before Green arrived in Champaign in 2022. Green takes a 60-30 record with the Illini (19-5, 9-4 Big Ten) into Thursday’s 6 p.m. tip with Penn State (10-14, 1-12) at State Farm Center in Champaign.
Mallory Rosendahl and the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley girls’ basketball team entered the Class 1A state rankings on Wednesday at No. 10.
Crowd control
Three events I’m paying attention to
➜ 1. Penn State at Illinois women’s basketball. A chance for the Illini to reach 20 wins for only the fourth time this century is there for the taking on Thursday night at State Farm Center in Champaign.
➜ 2. Drake at Murray State women’s basketball. Oakwood graduate Katelyn Young has 2,737 career points for the Racers (15-6) before they host the Bulldogs (15-8) at 6 p.m. Thursday in a key Missouri Valley Conference game.
➜ 3. Tri-Valley at Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley girls’ basketball. Rematch of the Monticello Holiday Hoopla title game that Tri-Valley won 54-52 on Dec. 28 happens at 7 p.m. Thursday between the host Falcons (24-5) and visiting Vikings (20-7).
Scott Olthoff
Coach’s corner
Three questions with Champaign Edison eighth-grade boys’ basketball Scott Olthoff, whose 23-2 Comets play Saturday in the IESA Class 4A state tournament:
➜ 1. My favorite sports team is … the Illini basketball teams.
➜ 2. Three coaches I’d like to have dinner with are … John Wooden, Mike Krzyzewski and Phil Jackson.
➜ 3. My biggest pet peeve is … youth coaches who don’t teach character and excellence along with winning and losing. I’ve seen some bad coaching in my years.