Put the Pigskin Away and Break Out the Round Ball

Thanksgiving weekend always means two things other than a lot of turkey; the end of high school football and the beginning of boys high school basketball. The ladies kicked off last week all over the area.

A quick run-down of the first day of the IHSA State Football State Championships.

1A - Tuscola over Lexington 14-7.

2A - Morrison over Maroa-Forsyth 36-14.

3A - Stillman Valley over Tolono (Unity) 52-22.

4A - Metamora over Geneseo 41-7.

One last football note right now in the local area; an interesting story is in news and message boards as Greenville HS has filed a complaint with the IHSA, over alleged weapons used by Tolono (Unity) players during last weeks Semi-Final game.

Story Link

Now for some roundball!

Sesser will play Zeigler-Royalton in the Championship game of the Christopher Turkey Tourney tonight at 7:30 p.m. ZR enters with a razor thin one point win while the Red Devils of Sesser enter the title game on the last second lay-in of Kendall Gibson. This game proves to be a very good match-up. Look for Sesser to be hungry, seeing as they have lost the last two years to ZR in the Championship game of this tourney.

A match-up of Williamson County school takes place at the same time, only in Herrin as the Tigers will play Marion for the Championship of the Pyramid Classic.

One more note, SIU plays host to EIU in the first round of the NCAA FCS (I-AA) playoffs. Kick-off is 1:00 p.m. at the Mac.

It's about time for bed, but I still have photos to work on!

Bucket Hat out.

And than there was one.

The only team from the deep south (we are not talking 618, which I will get to later) remains, and that is the 238th team to get into state playoffs, the Nashville Hornets. The Hornets, from the SIRR Mississippi defeated the Auburn Trojans in a phenomenal DOUBLE OVERTIME thriller, 48-41. The Hornets will battle the #3 seed Tolono (Unity) Rockets Saturday afternoon. Kick-off is scheduled for 1:30 in Nashville.

Keeping it in the SIRR, the Murphysboro Lady Red Devils saw their season come to an end Saturday night in Greenville as the Freeburg Lady Midgets won the second consecutive Super-Sectional 25-16, 25-17. The Lady Devils finished their season with 34 wins and 4 losses (with 2 losses coming at the hands of Freeburg). Freeburg will meet with Carlinville Friday morning at 11:30 a.m. on Doug Collins Court, at Red Bird Arena in Normal.

Many local cross country runners enjoyed a run in Detweiller Park this past Saturday. For the gents, Fairfield's Bryant Simpson finished in 11th place. In 24th place, Nashville's Kiefer Heiman; 26th place Benton's Dylan Hartley; 28th place Wade Reeves and 29th place Jon Hill, both from Sparta. As for the ladies, Aleigh Eggemeyer of Sparta finished 18th and Benton's Kaitlyn Schutt finished 39th.

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, I have a few options for you:

1 - Catch an IHSA Quarter-Final football game at various locations in the 618, which include; Breese (Mater Dei) @ 1:00 p.m., Nashville @ 1:30 p.m., O'Fallon @ 1:00 p.m., or Greenville @ 1:00 p.m.

2 - Head to the Mac for the final regular season home game for the SIU Salukis. The Dawgs kick off at 2:00 p.m. against the Missouri State Bears. A little side note, SIU is ranked #1 in NCAA Div. I-AA (FCS).

3 - If football doesn't suit your fancy, perhaps Volleyball does. Beginning Friday morning, the IHSA State Volleyball Finals (all classes) kicks off. This is the big stage for many teams and officials alike; one of those officials is Judy Stark, of Benton. Judy is one of eight officials selected by the IHSA to be a line judge in Normal. Congrats Judy!

Look for a more detailed report of Round 2 Playoffs tomorrow, for all classes. I am off to Rent One Park for the "Southern" - "Illinois" Coaches vs. Cancer event.

Enjoy your evening.

Bucket Hat

Remember, remember the 5th of November!

Ok, so no one was trying to blow up the House of Parliament, but the Murphysboro Lady Red Devils were most certainly explosive tonight in Harrisburg.

Tonight all across the state we had Sweet 16 Sectional Championships for Girls Volleyball; lets run through some of our local matches.

At the Harrisburg Class 2A Sectional, Murphysboro defeated Fairfield in straight sets, 25-21, 25-11. Murphysboro was led all around by future Saluki netter Jessica Whitehead. The Lady Devils move on to the Super-Sectional at Greenville this Saturday night.

One the other side of the Greenville Super, Freeburg defeated Staunton 25-10, 25-4 at Columbia. Freeburg beat the Lady Devils earlier this season at the Mascoutah Tourney, 25-19, 28-26. Look for Murphysboro to be fired up heading into Greenville this Saturday night.

In class 1A, a team on the bubble of our coverage area was upset tonight at Red Hill. The Albion (Edwards Co.) Lady Lions, a favorite to make a run to Normal were beat by the Lady Pirates of Toledo (Cumberland) 22-25, 25-8, 23-25. Edwards Co. finishes the season with a record of 34-4.

Speaking of 30 win seasons, Benton finished with 30 wins after their loss to Murphysboro Tuesday night 23-25, 23-25.

Tomorrow we will have a small preview of the Greenville Class 2A Super-Sectional and the Albion (Edwards Co) Class 1A Super-Sectional, as well as an insight on the Boys and Girls State Cross Country Championships up at Detweiller Park in Peoria!

Everyone enjoy the rest of your night (or morning depending on when you read this); I have to hang the volleyball shirt up for the last time of 2009.

Bucket Hat

Tough day on the gridiron

While Southern Illinois businesses are gearing up for Black Friday in just a few weeks Southern Illinois football teams hosted their own version of Black Saturday during opening round playoff games.

In all seven of 12 teams fell by the wayside during Week No. 1 action. Massac County, Harrisburg, Sesser-Valier-Waltonville-Woodlawn, Johnston City, Chester, Carterville and Carbondale all saw their respective season end in opening round play.

That leaves Marion, Anna-Jonesboro, Nashville, Du Quoin and Fairfield as the remaining teams from our region.

Let's look quickly at who those five teams are playing. And I should state up front that while a mediocre team might slip into a first round game there are no bad teams when you reach round two.

In Class 5A Marion at 9-1 will match up against Peoria Richwoods, also with a 9-1 mark. I said it in Week 7, I said it again in Week 8 and 9 and now I'm repeating myself again in Week 11 ... Marion could be a darkhorse in Class 5A. The Wildcats will be at home for a second successive week. Game time is Saturday at 4 p.m.

In Class 4A with Massac County, Harrisburg and Belleville Althoff making a quick exit deep Southern Illinois really took a direct hit. In games featuring teams from just outside our immediate area Breese Mater Dei (9-1) will meet Freeburg and Mt. Carmel (8-2) will meet undefeated Rochester. Mater Dei lost it's season opener to a very good Effingham team and now has reeled off nine straight wins. Rochester is a perenial 4A power. I like Mater Dei and Rochester to keep rolling along.

In Class 3A Southern Illinois is best represented with Du Quoin, Fairfield, Anna-Jonesboro and Nashville still remaining. It's an interesting aspect to look at the conference breakdown of these teams.
First, the SIRR Mississippi Division has half its teams left heading into round two of the playoffs, by far the best mark of any team in the South. All three teams from the Mississippi are clearly involved in winnable games. Anna-Jonesboro is on the road for a second straight week heading to Pana (7-3) while Nashville, fresh off a thrilling 21-19 victory over SVWW, will host an 8-2 Auburn team. Perhaps the toughest draw goes to Du Quoin, who will travel north to take on undefeated Tolono Unity.

Also in Class 3A Fairfield, fresh off a 30-0 shellacking of Breese Central, will host undefeated Greenville. Fairfield finished in third place in the Black Diamond Conference, losint to SVWW and Carterville by a combined total of five points, but is the lone representative from The Diamond as we head into week two.

While it wasn't a good showing in week one the great thing about high school playoff football is that hope springs enternal each Saturday afternoon. And as that old adage states: 'The games you remember are the games in November.'

We're Back

OK, first things first ... we deserve 40 lashes with a wet noodle for sloughing off on this blog. We could blame it on a number of things but the truth is that we just didn't do a very good job keeping things updated and then 'not doing a very good job' turned into neglect on our part.

But, with new people on board, a renewed sense of enthusiasm and some great new ideas about how to use this site as a compliment to Southern Illinois Sports Connection we're back, period.

-- Jim Muir --

Don't Worry!

If you've been visiting our website lately, you've noticed it's not been updated in a while.....not anymore. We are in the process of redesigning the website; so if things start to look a bit off, they are.

The staff of SISC will be updating the blog daily, sometimes twice daily (or even more during the peak of basketball, baseball, ect.)

So, in short, stay with us in this time of re-formatting and we will work hard to bring you a quality product in print, and online here at SISportsConnection.com!

CK

Jumping out of January...

It is hard to believe but we are already at the end of January. It seems like we just entered the new year. However, time and the sports world goes on in all three aspects so let's get started.

Prep Report
- It was rivalry night in Southern Illinois it seemed as the games that got in had rivalry implications. Impressive road wins by West Frankfort at Benton, Pinckneyville at Nashville, and Trico at Sesser-Valier.
- West Frankfort has won 3 games in 2 weeks after going winless most of the season.
- Herrin is on a streak after winning the WF Tournament last week, they beat Harrisburg at home last night. Today, they jump on a bus and head to play Pleasant Plains in the Pleasant Plains shoot out. This is a rematch of the 2002 Class A State Championship game.
- Who said that Pinckneyville wouldn't be good? A road win at Nashville has changed all of that and the run they have been on in 2009 after winning the BIT again.
- Speaking of Pinckneyville, it will be the place to be today as they are hosting their annual shootout. It has been going on for a long time and it is well run.

College Sports
- SIU is on the road at Evansville tonight. Both teams are facing quick turnarounds for games as the winter storm played havoc with their schedules this week.
- It is another big day of college basketball today with wall to wall coverage on every channel imaginable.
- You have to love college basketball right now in the heart of conference season.

Pro Sports
- Serena Williams has won the Australian Open in tennis this morning.
- The Super Bowl is finally tomorrow.
- Donovan McNabb wants to retire an Eagle. We shall see what management has to say.
- Shaq vs. Kobe...a marketing ploy...we await the opinion of Kobe on this one. If it was...pure genius.
- Speaking of the NBA, the Eastern Conference right now is the Celtics, Cavs, and then everyone else.
- Phil Mickelson never had thoughts on missing the cut of a PGA event right out of the shoot. He did in the FBR yesterday.

Like several other people in the area, I am headed to Pinckneyville for the games today. I'm out.

DC