The KC Blue Devils have pulled off the upset of the junior college season and picked a great time to do it. After the 8th seeded Devils advanced to the quarterfinals of the Region 24 tournament with a tight win over Olney Central on Saturday, Coach Bryan Hancock’s squad eliminated top-seed and #6 nationally ranked Vincennes University 61-56 at Rend Lake. This is coming off a 46 point loss to VU the Devils suffered in the regular season finale. KC got 17 off the bench from Anthoni Stanford and 14 from Marquel Newsome to overcome an 8 point halftime deficit. VU saw their 20-game win streak snapped.
Lincoln Trail 74; Wabash Valley 68
Under-manned with only seven available players, fifth-seeded Lincoln Trail led the entire game to defeat number four seed Wabash Valley, 74-68, in game two.
The Statesmen (17-10) were led by Ty Williams’ 24 points which included three treys while Michael White hit five triples and scored 16 points. Jai’Kori Phillips had 16 points for LTC with another thirteen by Marlon Bennett.
Muja Burton scored 24 including three treys for Wabash Valley (15-16) while Kevin Anthony scored eleven points.
Lincoln Trail led 36-33 at halftime.
Kaskaskia and Lincoln trail will square-off in Wednesday’s opening semi-final at Rend Lake at 5 p.m., CDT (6 p.m., EDT)
John A Logan 78; SWIC 68
Second-seeded John A. Logan fought-off a late SWIC rally to defeat the 7th-seeded Blue Storm, 78-68, in game three at Rend Lake.
Marcus Eaves topped all scorers with 22 points for the 21-9 Volunteers while Taylor Smith and Cameron Boone each scored 14 points and Decarl Payne scored ten.
Dalton Hicks netted 15 for SWIC (16-15) while Matthew Curprew-Elsy scored 12 points and Giulio Rigato chipped in ten.
Logan led 45-30 at halftime, but SWIC got within 65-60 with 6 ½ minutes to play.
The Blue Storm had a possession to cut the lead to two points, but turned the ball over and Decarl Payne buried a deep corner trey to stretch the JAL lead to 68-60.
Lake Land 92; Shawnee 88
Third-seeded Lake Land advanced to the semi-finals by outlasting sixth-seeded Shawnee, 92-88, in the final game of the day.
The Saints (14-16) trailed 45-39 at halftime and by double-digits in the second half, but got within 90-88 with 5.7 seconds to play before Sean Dekovachich iced the Lakers win with a pair of free throws.
Lake Land (23-8) was led by Sean Dekovachich with 21 points including three treys. Josh Bryant added 20 points followed by Payton Weemer with 14 points and 13 from Johnny Jones including three 3-pointers.
The Saints meshed 13 treys including four from Johnny Anderson who scored a game-high 31 points. Xavier Bell had three treys and 18 points before fouling out. James Deloach scored 17 points, Kesean Washington, 11, with three trifectas while Jalen White had three triples and nine points in the game.
Lake Land meets John A Logan in Wednesday night’s second semi-final at 7 p.m., CDT (8 p.m., EDT).
