The defending champion Centralia Orphans come flying into the SIT this year with a sparkling 19-1 record, with their only blemish being to one of the best 4a schools in the state, Chicago Marist, in the finals of the Centralia Holiday Tournament. Legendary coach Lee Bennett has a young but experienced group that features only one senior with regular minutes in Devin Meier who is the generally on the floor. Along with point guard Jaxson Hancock, who leads an underclassmen core that includes sophomore Archie Goewey and Kenny Bratton and junior Michael Organ, all have been battle tested and ready to roll into their opener Wednesday night having won five in a row after that loss to Marist with wins over Highland, Carbondale, St Louis CMB and Collinsville.
The Central Maroons come in with a record of 6-10 and have lost 3 of their last 4 coming into the tournament, two of those being to Centennial. The Maroons are led by Cayden Love at 14.4 points per game, Jeremy McCoy adds 10 and Landyn Cooper Sutton adds nearly 10. Champaign also competed once again at the Centralia Holiday Tournament where they finished 2-2.
Tip off at 6pm for Game 1 on WJBD and streaming at WJBDradio.com.
The night cap will see a battle of 11-9 teams as 4th seed Salem will take on #5 Mattoon. The Wildcats have won 4 of their last 6 games and enter the tournament with 4 athletes averaging close to double figures. Avery Gullion leads the way at 14, followed by Payton Gullion at 11, Kaeden Bevolo at 10 and Ryegan Warren scored 8 per game along with 3 assists. Mattoon has won 7 of their last 9 with their only losses in the span being to Monticello and Effingham.
Tip off of Game 2 will be at 7:30.
