For the second time in five days, the Comets were victorious in an overtime game when they topped visiting Chrisman 69-64 in a Vermilion Valley Conference game at home.

The teams were tied 58-58 after regulation. Chrisman’s only points in OT were on three-pointers.

The Comets nailed 5 of 6 free throws in the extra session to pull away. Kade Anderson and Josh Young each tallied four points in OT and Brevin Wells contributed three points, all from the foul line.

Overall, Oakwood made 12 of 17 free throws.

Chrisman led 35-32 at halftime.

Young hit the 20-point mark for the fourth time in his last five games, tallying 22 points. Wells chipped in with 15 points and Anderson totaled 10.

Oakwood (14-13) returns to action on Friday at Westville. The Comets are 7-3 in VVC contests.

The Comets are trying to extend their streak of consecutive winning seasons in boys’ basketball to six.

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The Comets remained unbeaten in overtime games this season, using the four extra minutes on Friday to win at Salt Fork, 66-62.

Oakwood is 3-0 for the season in overtime games.

Isiah Ruch and Josh Young each netted four points in OT as the Comets outscored the Storm, 10-6. Salt Fork’s points in OT were on two three-point baskets.

Young finished with a game-high 21 points. Ruch totaled 14 points. Jackson Powell nailed three three-point shots and added 12 points.

Oakwood (13-13) returns to action on Tuesday at home against Chrisman.

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After hitting a season-low for points scored in a game (19) in its previous contest, Oakwood achieved a season’s high on Monday in a 70-29 win at home against Chrisman.

The Comet led 23-3 after one quarter en route to their 20th win of the season.

Katelyn Young hit the 30-point mark for the sixth time as a senior, tossing in a game-high 31 points.

Addie Wright chipped in with 14 points and Ashlynn Pinnick contributed 10 points.

Pinnick scored eight of her points in the first quarter and Young hit 17 of hers in the second quarter.

Young’s career point total stands at 2,242. The senior is 73 points away from breaking the school’s 35-year-old career scoring mark. Stacie Calhoun tallied 2,314 points before graduating in 1985.

The Comets (20-6) have a minimum of four games left in their season. They return to action tonight at Westville. Oakwood’s 20-win season is its fourth in a row in girls’ basketball.

The post Comets rebound for big win over Chrisman first appeared on SJO Daily.

The Comets’ streak of consecutive Vermilion County Tournament basketball championships ended at three when Bismarck-Henning/Rossville-Alvin recorded a 33-19 win on Friday in the finals at Danville’s Palmer Arena.

This year was the fourth in a row that the same teams played in the County Tournament championship game.

Ashlynn Pinnick scored six points and Katelyn Young had four points for Oakwood.

In December, B-H/R-A had lost to Oakwood 39-32.

The Comets (19-6) return to action tonight at home against Chrisman.

The post BHRA uphends Oakwood girls’ basketball in Vermilion County Championship first appeared on SJO Daily.

Samantha Campbell scored nine first-quarter points on Monday, staking the Blue Devils to an early 19-11 lead in a game they won at Cerro Gordo 67-41.

Aliya Holloman hit a team-high 28 points. Campbell put up 15 points, just shy of her season-high of 16.

Madie Burwell contributed 10 points and Jordyn Ray ended with eight points.

On Tuesday, the Blue Devils carved a 66-5 lead after three quarters at home en route to a non-conference home win over Chrisman, 80-20.

The point total was a season-high for VG/H. The win was the fifth in a row for the Blue Devils.

Holloman scored 17 first-quarter points, helping the team to a 37-point outburst during the opening eight minutes. Campbell and Kyleigh Block each netted eight points in the first quarter.

On the night she was honored for reaching the 1,000-point mark (which occurred in December), Block ended with 13 points.  Campbell tallied 10 points as did Vanessa Wright. Maci Clodfelder added eight points.

VG/H is 16-3 overall and returns to action tonight at Tri-County.

The post Block recognized for 1,000 career points, Holloman and Campbell put Blue Devils over Cerro Gordo first appeared on SJO Daily.

Nohren had the team’s previous high scoring game with 24 points.

Issac Mahoe also reached a season-high at Chrisman with 12 points. Ierik Sorenson chipped in with 10 points.

VG/H put up 20 first-quarter points.

In Nohren’s final game of 2019 in December (against Centralia Christ Our Rock), he shattered the program’s single-game rebounding record by grabbing 24.

The Hawks (11-5) return to action on Tuesday at Heritage against Okaw Valley.

The post Nohren’s career-high 32 leads VGH over Chrisman first appeared on SJO Daily.

Oakwood’s losing streak reached three games on Tuesday with a 61-50 loss to visiting St. Thomas More.

The Sabers stormed into a 17-4 lead after one quarter.

Jackson Powell led the way for Oakwood with a season-high 14 points. He nailed three three-point shots.

Teammates Kade Anderson and Isiah Ruch each finished with 11 points. Elijah Harden and Brevin Wells hit five points apiece.

The Comets (4-5) return to action on Friday at Chrisman in their first Vermilion Valley Conference encounter of the season.

The post Oakwood boys’ basketball suffers 11 point loss to St. Thomas More first appeared on SJO Daily.

The Comets (7-2) opened Vermilion Valley Conference play on Thursday with a win at Chrisman (62-19) before dropping a 41-40 decision at home on Saturday against St. Joseph-Ogden.

Against Chrisman, Oakwood built a 27-0 lead after one quarter and limited the Cardinals to three first-half baskets.

Katelyn Young scored 17 points and Ashlynn Pinnick had 10 points. Aaliyah Denius hit eight points and Kalie Tison contributed five points.

Against SJ-O, the Comets jumped into a 13-6 lead after one quarter, but fell behind at halftime, 24-23.

Young hit a team-high 22 points. Denius scored 11 and Addie Wright added three points.

Oakwood returns to action tonight at home against Westville.

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Oakwood Boys’ basketball

The Comets scored nearly half of their points from three-point range on Tuesday (24 of 50), but dropped a 60-50 decision to Judah Christian at Champaign.

Brevin Wells scored a team-high 14 points and hit three shots from three-point range. Kade Anderson also dropped in three three-pointers and added 11 points.

Josh Young finished with 10 points.

Judah led 32-23 at halftime and was only able to increase its margin by one point in the second half.

When the same teams played a week earlier in the Tri-County Tournament, Oakwood registered a 54-43 victory.

Oakwood (4-3) returns to action on Friday in its home-opener against Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond.

Oakwood Girls’ basketball

Aaliyah Denius scored eight first-quarter points and Katelyn Young scored six in the opening frame on Monday to lead the Comets past visiting Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond, 53-27.

Young went on to post her third 30-point game of the season. She had a game-high 30 points. Denius ended with 10 points and Ashlynn Pinnick chipped in with nine points.

Oakwood held the visitors to five second-half field goals.

The Comets (6-1) return to action tonight at Chrisman.

The post Strong start puts Oakwood girls’ basketball ahead of Arthur-Lovington/Atwood-Hammond, boys’ basketball opens at home Friday first appeared on SJO Daily.

There was a time in the late 1980s that St. Joseph-Ogden had a leg up on the competition and it had nothing to do with the quality of the boys’ basketball program.

The advantage was the timing for the school’s annual holiday tournament. It came after the multitude of events that marked Thanksgiving week and it preceded the plethora of tournaments that take place immediately after Christmas.

The Leader Classic was a community staple in mid-December, starting and finishing before the Christmas holidays.

The entry list was a literal list of Who’s Who in Central Illinois basketball.

Chrisman, which has more than 1,600 wins in its history, was a participant. So were storied programs such as Monticello, Tuscola and Cissna Park, each of which have at least 1,400 wins. State-ranked teams from Paxton-Buckley-Loda, Unity and Armstrong-Potomac had their turns in the event that made its debut in 1989.

And don’t forget the SJ-O Spartans, who have more tournament titles (17) than all opposing schools combined in the first 30 years of the extravaganza.

“It exploded,” said Randy Wolken, who was the school’s boys’ basketball coach when the tournament began.

“The best teams in the area wanted to be in.

“The first year, we had five teams and right away after that, we had eight. We had our pick of the litter. No one else was doing it.

“You wanted to attract the best schools because you wanted great competition.”

Several schools that wanted to compete couldn’t break existing contracts when the Leader Classic began and had to wait a year to join.

Wolken and long-time SJ-O athletic director Dale Doehring were instrumental in getting the tournament established.

It wasn’t difficult to sell school administrators on the idea.

“They pretty well went for it,” Wolken said, “and I liked it from the aspect that I got four more home games.”

At the outset, there was a secondary advantage for Wolken and his teams.

“We could sit back and relax at Christmas-time,” he said.

The time of holiday leisure was short-lived.

“After a few years, we couldn’t get another tourney (in January), so we got in at Monticello (the week after Christmas),” Wolken said.

SJ-O superintendent Brian Brooks – who coached basketball at the school for 15 years – is not surprised at the tournament’s longevity.

“It was a tradition that our community wrapped their arms around,” Brooks said. “A big part (of the success) is that people at the school, and The Leader (newspaper) committed to it.

“The Leader played a big part with its support.”

As the years passed, more than the basketball schedules were changing. A growing number of schools were arranging their academic calendars to complete first-semester final exams before the Christmas break.

A week-long basketball tournament that coincided with final exams was not a good combination.
Since 2016, the SJ-O event was reduced from eight to six teams with each school playing all of the others in a round-robin format.

In 2018, The Leader newspaper closed its doors and the title sponsor changed to Toyota of Danville.
This year, another change was introduced. The tournament dates were moved up two weeks. First-round games will take place on Dec. 3.

The final day, Saturday, Dec. 7, will be an opportunity for each school to be showcased twice.
Defending tournament champion Cissna Park returns, but there are three newcomers in the field: Georgetown-Ridge Farm, Notre Dame La Salette and Watseka.

Brooks is optimistic that more expansion will take place.

“The last few years, it was more difficult to get teams because there was so much going on,” he said. “It’s not that they were not interested in coming, but the timing of it.

“We’ve gotten good feedback and may be back to eight in the near future.”

This year’s list of tournament entries features schools all within a 75-mile radius of St. Joseph.

In recent years, the tournament included schools traveling from Chicago Longwood and Stanford Olympia. Longwood bowed out after last year’s event.

While some coaches enjoyed seeing schools and styles of play they might not otherwise see in the regular season, there was a flip side to the long-distance commuter teams.

“The one negative from that far away is that you don’t get many fans, and the bottom line is that you need people in the stands to support paying the officials and the scorekeepers,” Wolken said.

“If it can’t break even, it can’t go too many years.”

Three-plus decades into the tournament’s existence, the staying power has been confirmed.

Though SJ-O twice had streaks of at least five tournament championships in a row, Wolken insisted it wasn’t because of scheduling.

“We didn’t just get teams we could beat,” Wolken said. “We had the best we could get in the area.

“You don’t want one good team and five or six poor ones. You want competitive teams and competitive games.

It can be tough to get everything to fall into place.”

Spartan administrators are hopeful that by reinventing itself with a new name and a new time slot, the tournament will remain viable for years to come.

The Toyota of Danville Classic will be held at St. Joseph-Ogden High School from Dec. 3 to Dec. 7. Home teams are listed first.

Tues., Dec. 3 @ 5p.m. Cissna Park vs. Notre Dame La Salette
Tues., Dec. 3 @ 6:30 p.m. SJO vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Tues., Dec. 3 @ 8 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Watseka

Wed., Dec. 4 @ 5 p.m. Cissna Park vs. Watseka
Wed., Dec. 4 @ 6:30 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Wed., Dec. 4 @ 8 p.m. SJO vs. Notre Dame La Salette

Fri. Dec. 6 @ 5 p.m. Notre Dame La Salette vs. Danville Schlarman
Fri. Dec. 6 @ 6:30 p.m.Georgetown Ridge-Farm vs. Watseka
Fri. Dec. 6 @ 8 p.m. SJO vs. Cissna Park

Sat. Dec. 7 @ 10 a.m. Cissna Park vs. Georgetown Ridge-Farm
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 11:30 a.m. SJO vs. Danville Schlarman
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 1 p.m. Notre Dame La Salette vs. Watseka

Sat. Dec. 7 @ 4 p.m. Danville Schlarman vs. Cissna Park
Sat. Dec 7 @ 5:30 p.m. Georgetown Ridge-Farm vs. Notre Dame La Salettesjo
Sat. Dec. 7 @ 7 p.m. Watseka vs. SJO

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