Ridgeview Girls defeat the armor of Blue Ridge

The Blue Ridge Lady Knights and the Ridgeview Mustangs tipped off Heart of (HOIC) play on the 27th of November on Kellars Court in Colfax.  The Mustangs moved out to a 12-2 start and held the lead throughout the competition soundly defeating the Knights at the final buzzer by 36 points.

Ridgeview Girls defeat the armor of Blue Ridge

The Blue Ridge Lady Knights and the Ridgeview Mustangs tipped off Heart of (HOIC) play on the 27th of November on Kellars Court in Colfax.  The Mustangs moved out to a 12-2 start and held the lead throughout the competition soundly defeating the Knights at the final buzzer by 36 points.

Pioneers and Raiders top their opponents in Intercity play by a combined 7 points.

Boys Intercity always has a couple good rivalry games.  For years, the Central Catholic Saints and the University High Pioneers have had a pretty good one.  This years seems no different, maybe even a little moreso since they are now in different conferences.  The whole game was a back and forth affair that had the Saints trailing most of the night.  They closed the gap in the 4th quarter and nearly won it in the last minutes with a foul to get the ball back strategy.  In the end, the Pioneers remained on top by 4.

BHS and NCHS have had a rivalry for years, even before Normal West came to exist.  The game last night was between the West Wildcats and the Bloomington Raiders.  They also have a rivalry, but with 2 of the best players in the state - one on each team - the game took on a tone of its own.  The Shirk Center was 3 rows deep of standing room only during the 4th quarter of the earlier game.  At the start of this affair the SRO had dwindled to just one row.  Lots of fans stayed to watch this game.  The game didn't disappoint.  There were at least 4 dunks, 2 intentional fouls and one good discussion between an official and a coach.  It was maybe the best high school basketball game we have seen in 5 years.  In the end, the Raiders took it by 3 points.

MVC Volleyball Tournament served up at Redbird Arena

For the first time since 2006, the Missouri Valley Conference Women's Volleyball Tournament is being held at Redbird Arena on the campus of Illinois State University in Normal Illinois.  Participating teams are the Drake Bulldogs, Indiana State Sycamores, Valparaiso Crusaders, Illinois State Redbirds, Missouri State Bears and Northern Iowa Panthers.  The Bears pulled in the #1 ranking followed by the Panthers as #2.  Both teams had the first round off.  The Redbirds ranked 3rd.  Surviving the 1st round were the Sycamores and the Redbirds.  Round two will pit the Sycamores against the Bears and the Redbirds against the Panthers. 

Litwiler puts on 3 point show during Quincy Hawks loss to Illinois State Redbirds

If you skipped last nights game at Redbird Arena, you missed a good game to watch some of the players that don't dust the floor very often.  Among those was Luke Litwiler, a walk on from Olympia High School who hit 3 points from beyond the arch and narrowly missed a 4th bringing the crowd to their feet!

Heyworth Boys survive visit from Warrensburg Latham Cardinals

In what looked like it would be a runaway win for the Hornets in the beginning of each half ended with a 2 point lead for the Hornets as they got possession of the ball with split seconds left avoiding a last second tie by the Cardinals. The Hornets successfully hit a lot of outside shots for 3 points.

From media day to Bison, August sun to November snow

We've seen the last of Hancock Stadium till at least the fall football practices.  Our season started this year doing something we hadn't done in many years - attending Media Day.  It was different this year than what we had been to in the past, but it was hot and productive in August... except the formal presser in the box with Brock.  Moving on to the month of September the first game against Butler seemed to come fast, but for the teams with 6 weeks of practice we are told it was an eternity.  After Butler there was a delay to get to have the 2nd home game on the last day of the same month.  October games are always fun with Homecoming and Family Day.  November is always the month of consideration from the time the very first schedule is announced.  November games can go either way weatherwise.  This year, we got 3 seasons in one 3 hour game!  Summer rain, falls freezing rain and winters mix of snow, they all arrived with the Bison.

A seasons worth of images will now keep the memories...

Titans top Scots at Shirk

At the final buzzer, the Illinois Wesleyan Titans 94 and the Alma Scots 75. On the path to get there, Brady Rose scores 35 while connecting on 6 three pointers. Brady had the company of Zach Knobloch who broke the schools 3 point record with 10 three point shots upsetting the standing record by Bryce Dolan who had 8. Knobloch was playing his 2nd game as a Titan after transferring as a sophomore from Wisconsin Whitewater. Jalen Beasley grabbed a career best 12 rebounds. The Titans move to 2-0 on the season. The Scots fall to 0-2.

Girls Intercity 2nd night posts wins by West and Community!

Normal West was impressive last night with a 57-18 win over the University Pioneers.  They pulled out to an early 10 or 12 point lead and never relinquished it.  The Wildcats played what has probably been the quickest up and down game of the 4 games we've seen in the early season.  Speed is certainly one of the weapons they have in their arsenal.

The Central Catholic v Normal Community game was all the Ironmen for the first quarter.  The Saints never felt out of it and pushed forward cutting the lead by halftime.  The final score at the buzzer was just a 2 point win 42-40 for the Iron.  Top scorers for each team were Saints Coffman and Iron Wong both with 12 each.

Bloomington-Normal Girls Basketball Kicks off with InterCity at NCHS

This years high school girl's basketball season started on November 13th with the intercity games being held in the "Iron Mine" at Normal Community High School.  First up was a matchup between the Raiders of Bloomington and the Saints of Bloomington Central Catholic.  The game was close - within 3 points one direction or the other till late in the 3rd quarter when the Saints pulled to a lead and kept it till the final buzzer.

The 2nd game pitted University Highs Pioneers against the Normal Ironmen.  The Ironmen have the size and talent this year and handily took the game from tip to buzzer.  Turnovers and fouls doomed the Pioneers from the beginning.