Moline's Musings

Shootout Gets Noticed

Posted by: Brian Moline

Monday, December 15, 2008 9:41 AM

Congratulations to the Champaign County Sports Commission for hosting another successful WDWS/News-Gazette Shootout at the Hall on Saturday.  We saw some very good high school basketball and great players all day Saturday. 

In case you missed any of the broadcasts on WDWS, just check out the podcast page to listen to any and all of the seven games.  It's always great to hear veterans like Jim Turpin and Dave Shaul back on the air doing play-by-play.

Nice blog post this morning by IlliniHQ's recruiting beat writer, Jeremy Werner.  He talks about Peoria Central freshman guard Antonio Drummond, who was impressive in defeat guarding Illini commitment Crandall Head, forcing the Crane guard into 10 turnovers.  I heard straight from the mouth of fellow Peoria Central grad Jerrence Howard that the Illini are recruiting Drummond, and for good reason.

Among the media who attended Saturday's Shootout were the Chicago Sun-Times,  Illinois Prep Bulls Eye, Rivals.com (subscription required), Scout.com (subscription), and of course, IlliniHQ.com.  Paul Klee gives us a nice recruiting summary of the day's action here.

The best team on the court Saturday was a local squad, Champaign Centennial.  Tim Lavin's squad was very impressive in a 60-43 win over Joseph Bertrand's Sterling squad.  Jordan Johnson and James Kinney took turns defending Bertrand and made him work very hard for his 14 points.  On the other end of the court, the Chargers showed what makes them so tough to beat.  It's very rare to see a high school team share the basketball as much as Centennial does, as the Chargers tallied 21 assists on 27 made baskets Saturday night. 

Next up for Centennial is a home date with crosstown rival Champaign Central.  Centennial has the edge in this matchup, but this rivalry is such that you never really know what will happen.  Tom Young and I will have the call Friday night at 7:30 on WDWS. 

Some Illinois wrestling thoughts headed your way tomorrow.  Talk to you then.

bmoline@wdws.com

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