WASHINGTON, ILLINOIS – Whereas groups dream to complete their seasons as champions, Winter Haven boys basketball began this season’s marketing campaign as one.
Winter Haven gained the celebrated seventeenth annual Kevin Brown Memorial Match of Champions in Washington, Illinois Saturday after handing Sugar Hill (Ga.) Lanier, 78-61, within the championship recreation. The event was broadcast reside on YouTube. The Blue Devils completed as the one unbeaten crew within the eight-team area.
Winter Haven stands with the Kevin Brown Memorial Match of Champions championship trophy on Saturday night time in Washington, Illinois.
Photograph courtesy of Tyrone Woodside
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“All of these groups had expertise, however this was our first 4 video games of the season, and I wanted to know the way we have been going to place it collectively,” Winter Haven head coach Tyrone Woodside mentioned. “We wished to go 4-0 however I wished them to play effectively and see how the chemistry will get constructed.
“Our purpose was to win it, however lots needed to do with how effectively we gelled collectively. We’ve got been enjoying rather well over the summer season, however chemistry-wise, as a result of we’ve plenty of expertise, our expertise has overwhelmed groups.”
The Blue Devils (4-0) positioned 4 of the event’s six gamers on the All-Match crew, together with event MVP Isaac Celiscar.
Becoming a member of him have been Georgia-signee Dylan James, Kjei Parker and Jamie Phillips. Matthew Vaughn gained the event’s Hustle Award, which landed a medal within the fingers of all 5 Winter Haven starters.
Winter Haven junior guard Isaac Celiscar stands subsequent to one of many Kevin Brown Memorial Match administrators after receiving the Match’s MVP Award.
Photograph courtesy of Tyrone Woodside
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“I’ve very hardly ever seen a crew with 4 gamers on the All-Match crew,” Woodside mentioned. “As a result of the event is so huge, the primary recreation we performed towards Metamora, an area crew that has a fan base that travels with them, we have been in a position to deal with adversity in a unique surroundings. James, Celiscar, Phillips and Parker, are all used to that. However I used to be involved about the remainder of my roster and the way they might deal with it as a result of I wanted manufacturing out of the entire crew.”
Winter Haven – ranked twenty fifth within the SBLive Sports activities Florida Boys Basketball Energy 25 – reached the title recreation after a 3-0 efficiency in pool play on the four-day event, Phillips and Celiscar each scored 21 and Parker 19 whereas downing Lanier.
Winter Haven topped Metamora 72-64 in its first recreation Wednesday after which opened plenty of eyes with a 110-81 thrashing of Houston’s Booker T. Washington. The 110-point outburst was only a level shy of the event’s single-game scoring file set by Chicago St. Rita final 12 months.
“We actually didn’t know or I may need gone forward and left (our starters) in to get another level,” Woodside mentioned. “We may have achieved it (towards Yorkville Christian) however I wanted our starters to get relaxation as a result of 4 video games in 4 days is lots. Plus that they had already began getting bothered by the climate, their throats, and a few of them had their chests bothering them. We weren’t completely wholesome.”
Parker scored 28 towards Washington whereas Celiscar added 24 and Vaughn 21. In opposition to Metamora, Celiscar completed with 19 and James 16 with 13 rebounds and two crowd-pleasing dunks.
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The Blue Devils completed pool play smoking Yorkville, 90-41, on Friday. Parker led with 19 factors and Vaughn added 16.
St. Rita, ranked twenty seventh total within the nation, was thought of the event favourite by many onlookers, however by no means reached the title recreation after falling to Joliet West, 64-56, and St. Louis’ Cardinal Ritter, 71-66.
“Everybody anticipated us to play St. Rita,” Woodside mentioned. “I feel they have been down a guard.”
Winter Haven gained its solely FHSAA boys basketball state championship within the spring of 1973 with future four-time NBA All-Star Otis Birdsong, who was chosen to the Faculty Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2018.
This spring will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the title, and Woodside admits he thinks about it usually. Winter Haven has additionally reached the state semifinals underneath Woodside 4 instances in 2012, 2013, 2018 and this previous season.
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“We’ve got been interested by it on all 4 visits,” Woodside mentioned. “Fifty is a nice-round quantity to provide us some closure.”
Winter Haven additionally reached the state event semifinals in 1922, 1995, 2003 and 2004.
If you’re an Illini fan today, you’re probably somewhere putting your feet up, basking in the glow of an epic come-from-behind football win and an iron-fisted basketball beatdown, and patting yourself on the back for a hard day’s work rooting on your favorite nationally ranked programs. Oh, and you’re undoubtedly asking yourself a question:
Who in the world is Ed Cooley?
Unless you’re a die-hard college basketball fan, you can be forgiven for scratching your head over the name. Cooley, the current coach of the Georgetown Hoyas and previously a longtime head man at Providence and Fairfield, doesn’t do a lot of business in the Midwest, or anywhere else – like, say, the NCAA Tournament – where you might have seen him often.
More to the point, what does Cooley have to do with the Illini? It’s a fair question – one that a lot of observers were asking in the wake of his postgame press conference after his Hoyas’ 82-65 win over Saint Francis on Saturday.
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Ostensibly, the subject of conversation was Hoyas guard Jayden Epps and his glowing defensive performance against the Red Flash, but it was the Illini (and, by implication, coach Brad Underwood and his staff) who wound up catching strays from 700 miles away.
You may remember that Epps – a top high school prospect out of Norfolk, Virginia, a few years back – signed with Illinois and played his freshman season in Champaign. Had a pretty good year, too: averages of 9.5 points and 1.5 assists in 31 games, including 11 starts. But Epps bounced out of Illinois through the transfer portal – and wasn’t the first or last in the Underwood era – and landed at Georgetown.
Perhaps Cooley felt Epps was underappreciated in Champaign and thought he was defending his guy. Maybe he even thought he had been mistreated. But the message wasn’t a response or reaction – it was delivered unprompted, without further context or explanation. it was a calculated shot wrapped in an offhanded remark inside a monumentally dumb decision. Neither Cooley nor Epps gained anything from the comment. It just came off as sour grapes.
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Cooley must have recognized as much – or been instructed by an administrator that he had better – because he quickly apologized for the indiscretion. Sort of:
“My comment today was said in jest with one of my players, but I admit it was a poor choice of words,” Cooley posted on his X social media account. “I have the utmost respect for the University of Illinois, its men’s basketball program, coaches and players.”
For his part, Underwood blew off the beef when asked about Cooley’s comments in the postgame presser following Illinois’ 87-40 shellacking of Maryland Eastern Shore.
“My guys told me about it,” Underwood said. “That’s not even worth wasting my time on. I don’t know what he’s referencing that about. Jayden had a productive freshman year here. But I’m not getting into all that. I’ll let our fans have some fun with that, which I’m sure they probably are. But I’ve got Arkansas Little Rock to worry about and Arkansas to worry about and Northwestern to worry about and everybody else to worry about. I mean, I don’t read [the media’s] stuff, I’m sure as heck not gonna read his.”
Illini fans will surely have less tolerance and longer memories for this sort of thing than Underwood himself, so of course we’re rooting for an Illinois-Georgetown NCAA Tournament matchup. Because what’s March Madness without a little extra chaos?
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Will Riley scored his 19 points in the second half and No. 25 Illinois beat Maryland Eastern Shore 87-40 on Saturday.
Kylan Boswell added 13 points, Tomislav Ivisic had 11 and Morez Johnson Jr. finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds for the Illini (4-1), who shot 25% (10 for 40) from 3-point range but committed just nine turnovers.
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Tre White grabbed 11 rebounds and Kasparas Jakucionis seven for Illinois, which outrebounded the Hawks 59-38.
Jalen Ware scored 10 points and Christopher Flippin had 10 rebounds for Maryland Eastern Shore (2-6), which had its lowest point total of the season. The team’s previous low came in 102-63 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 4.
Illinois is unbeaten in four home games. Maryland Eastern Shore is winless in six road games.
Takeaways
Illinois: Coming off a 100-87 loss Wednesday to No. 8 Alabama, the Illini had no trouble dominating the overmatched Hawks. They led 35-15 at halftime and extended the lead to as many as 52 points in the second half.
Maryland Eastern Shore: The Hawks couldn’t match Illinois’ height and depth and were slowed by 15 turnovers.
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Key moment
After struggling at the start of the game, the Illini went on a 17-0 run over a seven-minute stretch to move in front 25-8 with 5:15 to go in the first half.
Key stat
Maryland Eastern Shore struggled from the field, shooting 22% (15 for 68), including 5 for 20 on 3-pointers.
Up next
Illinois hosts Little Rock on Monday. Maryland Eastern Shore plays at No. 20 Arkansas on Monday.
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The women’s Illinois basketball team continued to impress on Friday night with another big win.
Coming into the game, the Illini were 4-0 and had already beaten a top-25 program in Florida State and a good team in Marquette. We were on top of the world.
It would be understandable for a letdown game to happen. Illinois didn’t let it happen, though. We came out of the gates firing, and Oregon State didn’t have answers.
Illinois played well in both halves. We took a 10-point lead into the halftime locker room and quickly expanded on that lead in the third quarter. By the game’s end, Illinois managed to secure an 85-66 win over Oregon State.
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Coming into the game on Friday night, Illinois has been able to hold their own when it comes to the rebounding department. But this wasn’t an easy matchup, as Oregon State is a good rebounding team as well.
Despite Oregon State having some great size, the Illini were tough on the boards. We were able to pull down rebounds at a rate that I was impressed with considering the opposing team had a 6-foot-7 center starting.
Illinois finished the game pulling down 36 rebounds compared to Oregon State’s 34 rebounds. Five of the 36 rebounds were on the offensive glass too, but we didn’t have a ton of opportunities considering the team shot 54.7% from the field.
The thing that impressed me the most about Illinois’ rebounding ability on Friday night was the size differential. Oregon State trotted out a 6-foot-7 center and a 6-foot-5 forward. We limited those two players to just 12 rebounds in 42 minutes of game action.
I think a big part of the great rebounding effort on the part of Illinois is the fact our frontcourt is strong and athletic. It is hard to move Kendall Bostic off her spot, and she does a great job boxing out. The same can be said for Brynn Shoup-Hill. Both players were quicker than anything Oregon State had in the frontcourt too.
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