FRIDAY, MARCH 4 SPORTS ROUNDUP
GIRLS BASKETBALL
IHSA CLASS 3A AND 4A STATE SEMIFINALS AND THIRD AND FOURTH PLACE GAMES
In the Class 3A state semifinals played at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, Mundelein Carmel Catholic defeated Civic Memorial 51-24, while LaGrange Park Nazareth Academy defeated Morton 55-24. In the third and fourth place game played Friday evening, Morton won over the Eagles 55-41 to give CM fourth place, its best-ever finish in the state tournament.
In the Class 4A semifinals, Lincolnshire Stevenson defeated Lisle Benet Academy Catholic 36-28 and Barrington won over Bolingbrook 64-55. The third place game saw Bolingbrook nip Benet 57-54.
The IHSA’s first-ever Championship Saturday takes place today and tonight, as all four championship games will be played at Redbird Arena. The Class 1A final sees Brimfield going against Galena at 11 a.m, with Quincy Notre Dame Catholic playing Winnebago for the Class 2A title at approximately 1 p.m. The Class 3A final sees Carmel taking on Nazareth Academy at 5:30 p.m and the Class 4A final between Stevenson and Barrington tip off at about 7:15 p.m.
BOYS BASKETBALL — IHSA PLAYOFFS
SECTIONAL FINALS
CLASS 3A
EAST ST. LOUIS 56, CHATHAM GLENWOOD 47: East St. Louis’ one-two combo of Christian Jones and Macaeleb Rich led the way once again as the Flyers advanced to the Elite Eight for the second consecutive time, the first since the 2019 state championship season, with a win over Chatham Glenwood in the sectional final at Highland.
East Side was in a position to go through to the super-sectional game in 2020, but the IHSA cancelled the remainder of the tournament due to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, then didn’t have the state tournament series at all in 2021.
The Flyers got off to an 11-0 start and led the Titans after the first quarter 15-5, then held a 23-18 edge at halftime. East Side was ahead after three quarters 40-32, then outscored Glenwood 16-15 to take the win and advance to the super-sectional.
Jones, who signed to play at Missouri next season, led the Flyers with 25 points, while Rich added 19 points, Demarion Brown had eight points, Daveon Hawkins scored two points and both Jaden Hale and Amori Johnson had one point apiece.
Eli Curtis led the Titans with 18 points, while Josh Jones had 12 points and Wes Anderson added six points.
The Titans conclude their season at 20-13, while the Flyers improve to 27-5 and will play against Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin Catholic, who defeated Decatur MacArthur 55-53 in overtime to win the Danville sectional, in the super-sectional game at Bank of Springfield Center Monday night in a 7:30 p.m. start. The winner goes through to the state semifinals agains the winner of the Hoffman Estates High School super-sectional, either Chicago St. Ignatius College Prep or Chicago St. Patrick, next Friday afternoon at State Farm Center on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign-Urbana at approximately 11:30 a.m.
In other sectional finals on Friday night, in the Class 1A final at White Hall North Greene, Liberty won over Jacksonville Routt Catholic 39-28 and go through to the super-sectional playoff against Augusta Southeastern, who took the Abingdon-Avon sectional over Peoria Christian 43-34, at the Jacksonville Bowl Monday night at 7 p.m. In the Class 2A sectional final at Flora, Teutopolis defeated Mt. Carmel 56-35 to move on to the SIU-Carbondale super-sectional against Nashville, who won the Carterville sectional over Breese Central 47-45 in overtime, Monday night at 7:30 p.m. at Banterra Center.
If you have an item for the Sports Roundup, please E-mail the results and statistics to Dan Brannan at [email protected], or you may text the results to (618) 623-5930, and it will be used in that day’s Riverbender.com/EdGlenToday.com Sports Roundup. We will accept both high school and junior high school results for the Sports Roundup.
