The Salem Lady Wildcats are back in the DuQuoin Tip Off Classic championship after running through their pool 3-0 including last night’s win over the hosts 54-40. Salem trailed by 5 points midway through the 2nd quarter, but by halftime had erased the deficit and led 26-21. Jordan Kessler led Salem with 16 and Emma Gregg finished with 15. Natalie Lee was great defensively again and opened up her offensive game scoring 8, 6 of them in the 3rd quarter when Salem pulled away a bit. The Lady Cats finished off the game from the foul line where they were 8-of-10 in the fourth quarter and 12-of-18 for the game. They will play in the 4:30 championship today against Pinckneyville who was also undefeated after their tight win over Woodlawn last night.
The day begins at noon with the 7th place game between Murphysboro and Cairo. Christopher and Woodlawn will play for 5th place at 1:30, the 3rd place game between Sesser Valier and DuQuoin will be at 3 followed by Salem and Pinckneyville for the big trophy at 4:30 that you can listen to on AM 1350, 92.1 FM and online at southernillinoisnow.com.
At DuQuoin last night as well, Christopher beat Murphysboro 46-15, Sesser Valier over Cairo 66-24, Pinckneyville over Woodlawn 47-40.
Effingham head coach Jeff Schafer reached career coaching win #500 at the school with the Lady Hearts 68-33 win at Dieterich. He took over the program in 1998. During his 26 year career, he has had 20 winning seasons, captured 9 regional title, 3 sectional championships. He has an overall winning percentage of over 65%.
Also last night, Altamont beat Olney 48-37, Mater Dei 43-33 over Gillespie, Brownstown/St Elmo over Christ Our Rock 65-17, Collinsville beat Wesclin 54-31, Mt Vernon 62-39 over Freeburg, Nashville over Okawville 60-28, Nokomis beat Vandalia 64-31.
