The Salem Wildcats season came to an end at the Pana 2a regional championship last night falling to the host Panthers 50-38. Kaleb Anthony had 19 in the game, 17 of them in the opening half. Caden Bee added 8 and Brendan Phillips 6 in the finale for Salem who falls to 16-13 in coach Pete Colcasure’s first year on the bench. Pana improves to 29-3 and will advance to the Flora Sectional this week. Advancing in the 3-point shootout was Salem’s Gavin Zimmermann and Brendan Phillips.
In other regional championships, TTown won the Arthur title over Newton 48-45, Nashville in overtime beat Pinckneyville 51-42, Massac County over Hamilton County at Eldorado 63-45, Marquette beat the hosts at Greenville 55-24, Mt Carmel wins the Robinson title over Fairfield 55-42, at West Frankfort it was Murphysboro over Carterville 46-36. In Regional semifinals at Wesclin last night, Breese Central beat Althoff 63-49 and Mater Dei over Columbia 50-34. The teams from Breese will meet tonight for the regional title at 7pm. That winner advances to play Massac County at Carterville while at Flora on Tuesday it will be Teutopolis and Marquette. Wednesday at Carterville it’s Nashville and Murphysboro and from Flora it will be Pana and Mt Carmel.
The Centralia Orphans beat Mount Vernon for the 4th time this season in winning the Centralia 3a Regional 54-42. Kolby Wilmouth once again led Centralia with 19 and Davon Tabor added 17. Playing in his final game for the Rams, NJ Benson finished with 14 and Collin McClure added 11. The Orphans advance to the Highland Sectional next week when they play Chatham Glenwood on Tuesday with East St Louis and the winner of today’s Olney v. Marion game will play on Wednesday. Ian Justice Jr. advance for the Orphans in the 3-point shootout.
Also in 3a last night, East St Louis beat Highland at Cahokia 78-57, Mahomet over Lincoln 31-28 at Mahomet, Marion upset Mascoutah in the Olney Regional semifinal 40-38.
The South Central Cougars won their first regional title in 19 years as they knocked off top-seed Altamont 56-50 at the Dieterich 1a Regional. SC used a 1-2-2 zone to keep the Indians off balance and the Cougars made enough free throws down the stretch and got some key steals on their way to the title. Aidan Dodson scored a game-high 29 points in the win. Spencer Johannes added 11. Before the game, advancing to Sectionals in the 3-point shootout included Rahkeim Anderson of South Central. The Cougars will get Macon Meridian at the St Anthony Sectional on Wednesday after their win over Neoga 73-67 to win the Strasburg Regional.
Also in 1a regional finals, Christopher beat Sesser at Elverado 62-20, St Anthony won the Patoka Regional over Carlyle 58-46, Gibault won their home regional over Father McGivney 57-41. It was regional semifinals at Woodlawn with Steeleville over Webber 42-28 and Edwards County beat Wayne City 60-56. Those two teams will play today for the regional title.
In 4a regional title games last night, Quincy beat O’Fallon 56-49 at Alton. The Panthers led 27-19 at half, but Quincy outscored them 16-3 in the 3rd quarter. Collinsville nipped Belleville East 62-60 at Granite City. The K-Hawks advance to play Quincy at the Collinsville Sectional on Tuesday with the other semifinal of Normal Community and Moline in a game played in Pekin.
