December 2023

Third seed Rockridge Rockets took the lead at 6:08 in the 1st quarter and never gave it back.  They advance to the semifinal round on the heels of a 48-36 win over the Farmers of Farmington.  Points in the paint were the key category in this one, as Rockridge used short distance, high-percentage buckets to […]

Game 13 was a bruiser.  The West Hancock Titans devised and executed a game plan to somehow slow down 6’9″ defending All-Tournament player Hank Alvey and it turned into a tournament quarterfinal win over the Illini Bluffs Tigers by a score of 45-31.  These two teams played a heated game earlier this year at the

In what turned out to be the closest game of the 2023 Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament so far, the Illini West Chargers survived a 4th quarter comeback from the Southeastern Suns to take a 36-35 win.  Southeastern carried an 18-17 lead into halftime, but we did not know what was in store for the roller coaster

The Pittsfield Saukees felt the sting of yesterday’s opening round loss as a seeded team, so they focused their sights on the Hornets of Brown County and came prepared.  They led this game from wire-to-wire and sailed to a 46-27 win over Brown County.  Pittsfield took a 33-13 lead into halftime…and then the shooting for

After back-to-back MVP finishes in 2021 and 2022, Tyler Heffren must have felt he had something to prove after his performance yesterday seemed…less than we’d come to expect from him.  In Game 10 vs the Lewistown Indians, Heffren led the Eureka Hornets to a comfortable win.  He finished with 30 points and 17 rebounds on

Day 2 of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament kicked off with a comeback win by the Canton Little Giants, who knocked off the Liberty Eagles by a score of 47-39.  Canton led by a score of 23-19 heading into the halftime, but Liberty outscored Canton 14-9 in the 3rd quarter to take a 33-32 lead.  Just

Down by seven at halftime, Monmouth-Roseville Titans stormed back and outscored the Illini West Chargers 26-12 in the second half to take Game 8 by a score of 43-36.  In what can very easily be called a tale of two halves, the Titans mustered just 17 points in the opening half headlined by poor shooting,

Despite a late scare from Southeastern, the top seeded Panthers of Camp Point Central held the lead from wire-to-wire to take Game 7 of the first round by a score of 47-36.  Though many of the counting stats were rather close, Central led second chance points 10-4 due to 11 offensive rebounds.  This game didn’t

Macomb has made a statement.  The message:  We aren’t just the hosts of this tournament…we also want to win the whole thing.  In an incredibly impressive wire-to-wire win, they handed the Hornets of Brown County a 78-32 loss in Game 6.  The Bombers started the game on a 22-0 run and didn’t let up.  Macomb

In a thrilling upset that turned into the closest Day 1 game thus far, Abingdon-Avon handed #4 seeded Pittsfield a 42-34 loss.  A seeded team had not lost in the first round of the Macomb-Western Holiday Tournament since Eureka was upset in 2011.   But maybe it wasn’t as much of an upset as it appears…because