News-Gazette's All Area Boys Basketball at the State Farm Center on Sunday, March 17, 2019.
RANTOUL — The Rantoul Township High School boys basketball team had a lot of issues to deal with as it played through its season.Issues included injuries, dismissal of players from the team and losing key senior players from last year. The team found itself in a big slump starting its first …
COLFAX — Fisher High School basketball players Tyler Martin and Carson Brozenec will be heading to Peoria, after advancing in the three-point competition that took place during Friday’s sectional championship in Ridgeview High School.
RANTOUL — When a team loses a close game, a coach can point to many reasons. The Rantoul Township High School Eagles ended their season on Monday night with a 61-55 loss to the Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs in the opening round of the Illinois High School Association Class 3A Regional, which was …
FISHER — The Fisher High School boys basketball team was just no match against Cissna Park who it met in the second round on Feb. 20.The Bunnies were trailing by 19 going into the locker room just after the first half, 42-23.
ARMSTRONG- Scoring a thousand points for a high-school basketball player is an accomplishment that isn’t easy. Dalton Loschen joined the elite 1,000-point club during Armstrong’s road game against Danville Schlarman on Feb. 1.
RANTOUL- The Rantoul Township High School boys basketball team bounced back in a big way on Saturday against Bradley-Bourbonnais for its final home game after losing a tough game the night before.
FISHER — The Fisher Boys basketball team
RANTOUL — In basketball the outcome to a game can come down to the final minute. Each possession and call the referees make will matter.
RANTOUL — The Rantoul Eagles boys basketball team dominated Friday’s game against the Olympia Spartans with a 67-39 win.By the end of the first quarter, Rantoul had scored 21 points while limiting the Spartans offense to only 4 points. In the second quarter, Rantoul again scored another 21 p…
CHAMPAIGN — Zach Griffith's two-game playing streak ended Wednesday night against Wisconsin. But he was still plenty active for the Illinois basketball team.He jumped off his seat and participated in huddles. He encouraged his teammates when they struggled. He kept his head in the game.
GIBSON CITY — The Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley/Fisher High School wrestling team defeated Rantoul/Paxton-Buckley-Loda 60-21 in a dual meet on Thursday.GCMS/Fisher's Hayden Workman pinned Seth Forbes in a time of 30 seconds in the 285-pound match. Kaden Gream pinned Keddrick Terhune in a time of…
BLOOMINGTON — Tommy Nelson and Luke Yoder have been sensational all season as the leaders of the Bloomington Central Catholic boys basketball team.
DANVILLE — In the final 39 seconds of the game, Kyler Stephens simply could not miss from the free throw line in the fifth-place game at the Vermilion County boys basketball tournament.Stephens’ six free throws in the final minute pushed Armstrong-Potomac Trojans past Georgetown-Ridge Farm, …
RANTOUL — Rantoul’s boys basketball team avenged a loss to Illinois Valley Central at the Taylorville Holiday Tournament in late December with a 58-50 win over the Grey Ghosts on Friday night.
EL PASO — Coming into the season, lack of size leading to a disadvantage on the boards was the Fisher boys basketball team’s No. 2 question mark of the 2018-19 campaign.
LOS ANGELES — The memory comes flooding back in an instant.Even through the phone, the wide grin can be felt spreading across his face as he harkens back to a fleeting moment from his childhood.Mike Mennenga is sitting in Los Angeles traffic, the congested gridlock light years away from the …
BERKELEY, Calif. — Ten years later, head coach Deon Mennenga can still recall the exact type of player and person he had in his star guard/forward.The person was confident, dependable and a strong leader."He’s a good young man. They don’t get much better," Mennenga said.The player was coacha…
RANTOUL — When Brett Frerichs checked his messages in the moments following last Tuesday’s win over Paxton-Buckley-Loda, he was a bit astonished at what engulfed his phone.
HEART OF ILLINOIS CONFERENCE BOYS’ TOURNAMENTSATURDAY, Jan. 19At El Paso-GridleyGame 1 — No. 8 Tri-Valley vs. No. 9 Ridgeview, 11:30 a.m.Game 2 — No. 4 Fieldcrest vs. No. 13 Lexington, 1 p.m.Game 3 — No. 5 LeRoy vs. No. 12 Fisher, 2:30 p.m.
RANTOUL — Google "Mattoon buzzer beater," and the first item to pop up is a YouTube video with more than 67,000 views from a boys basketball game played Dec. 27, 2012 at the Taylorville Holiday Tournament. Matchup? Rantoul vs. Mattoon.Situation? Score tied 54-54.Time left? 0.7 seconds.
ARMSTRONG — It’s been a frustrating month for Deon Mennenga and the Armstrong-Potomac boys basketball team.The Trojans (4-14) have not relished victory since a Dec. 11 win over Schlarman, losing eight straight, with the first six games in the losing streak coming by an average of 28 points.
COLFAX — At this point in the season, it would be hard to blame fans of Fisher boys basketball if their mentality is "Let’s just survive the first half and hope they can turn it on in the second."Once again, the Bunnies came trudging out of the gate, their feet stuck in the mud Friday night …
RANTOUL — It has been a season filled with smiles and excitement for Rantoul St. Malachy boys basketball.Two years after the Tigers’ seventh-grade team reached the 7-1A state tournament’s Elite Eight round, it looks like the 2018-19 seventh-graders and eighth-graders each have the potential …
HOOPESTON — After losing six consecutive games dating back to a Dec. 11 win over Schlarman, the Armstrong-Potomac boys basketball team had perhaps its best chance at ending the skid Friday night against Hoopeston Area.Leading by one point on the road with 1 minute, 50 seconds remaining in th…
BROADLANDS — It’s not where the Bunnies want to be. But after eight straight losses, the Fisher boys basketball team is certainly happy with how the final week of 2018 played out.After winning two straight BSN Classic championships in 2014 and 2015, the Bunnies were relegated to the fifth-pl…
TAYLORVILLE — It truly was rock bottom.The players felt it, and so did the coaches.Following Rantoul boys basketball’s 76-28 embarrassment against Bloomington Dec. 22, something needed to change.Something did.
BLOOMINGTON — On Rantoul’s first possession Friday night, freshman point guard Jimmy Nixon buried a long jump shot to give the Eagles’ boys basketball team a 2-0 lead over Bloomington.The Purple Raiders responded within five seconds with an easy layup, and from there, the game exploded into …
RANTOUL — Johnny Jones. CJ Dunner. Duck Gibson.Over the past several years, Rantoul boys basketball teams have had the luxury of handing the ball to those electric, composed playmakers at point guard in separate seasons.
MARION — Brett Frerichs is starting to sound like a broken record these days, but it’s hard to blame him.
TREMONT — It was an issue for Fisher boys basketball last season, and the problem continues to bite the Bunnies at the start of the 2018-19 campaign.Lack of motivation from the start.The Bunnies lost a Heart of Illinois Conference bout to Tremont, 85-66, on Friday night, but the game looked …
ST. JOSEPH — Once again, the Armstrong-Potomac boys basketball team was overwhelmed against the No. 1-ranked team in Class 1A.Just nine days after suffering a 76-27 defeat at the hands of Cissna Park, A-P again was blown out by the Timberwolves, 75-26, on Thursday as part of the St. Joseph-O…
TREMONT — Last season, Keegan Zimmerman scored 36 and 31 points in wins over the Fisher boys basketball team.The 6-8 senior forward from Eureka then netted 32 points in defeating the Bunnies in a late November game this season.
Off to a poor 1-4 start, the Eagles geared up for a nonconference showdown against Jack Cook and St. Joseph-Ogden. Behind the scenes of Rantoul boys basketball’s fight to rebound from the early-season dip.Saturday, Dec. 1Rantoul Township High School8:50 p.m. — Boys locker room
RANTOUL — It was the type of agonizing déjà vu coaches would love to avoid, but it was impossible to miss.
ARMSTRONG — It’s about as debilitated as the coach has been in his career following a loss, and it left him with a hard-to-miss realization.“We’re a long way away from that,” said Deon Mennenga.
ARMSTRONG — Dalton Loschen was certainly frustrated last Tuesday, but there was almost nothing he could do.One of the area’s leading scorers at 17.9 points per game, the senior forward from Armstrong-Potomac was shut down by Cissna Park’s 6-7 twins, Julian and Christian Stadeli.
FISHER —Nick Perry led all scorers with 23 points to key LeRoy’s 65-54 win over Fisher in a Heart of Illinois Conference home victory last Tuesday.The Bunnies got double-digit scoring from Will Delaney (16), Carson Brozenec (15) and Tyler Martin (12).
RANTOUL — When Angelo Brown did not go out for basketball for his junior season, it left Rantoul coach Brett Frerichs without a key rotation player and potential starter for the 2017-18 season.Brown, however, has returned in 2018. Five games into the season, the senior forward has already ma…
RANTOUL — For eight minutes Saturday night, it looked like the same old story for the Rantoul boys basketball team.Rantoul was stagnant and unproductive, unable to sustain anything offensively in putting up just six points in the first quarter of a nonconference game against Chicago Longwood.
ARMSTRONG — Bryce Franzen’s baseline buzzer beater capped a thrilling 40-39 win for the Armstrong-Potomac boys basketball team over Iroquois West last Tuesday.The game-winning bucket was the last of 16 points for Franzen, whose shot was buoyed by a game-high 20 points by Dalton Loschen in th…
CHAMPAIGN — Bryson Cowper has been a thorn in the side of Rantoul boys basketball in the past.Last Wednesday, it was no different as the Centennial senior guard provided more headaches for the Eagles by draining six three-pointers en route to a game-high 29 points in a 70-64 win over Rantoul.
GIBSON CITY — All three times Keegan Zimmerman has faced the Fisher boys basketball team, the 6-foot-8 senior has had himself a night.
For the week of Nov. 18, Rantoul Township High School awarded the members of the Eagles’ marching band as the Athlete of the Week. “Under the direction of Mr. Matt Chesner, the band is the backbone of school spirit,” Rantoul athletic director Travis Flesner said. “They not only perform at th…
OAKWOOD — Renee Reed’s first foray into varsity head coaching is off to a good start.Reed’s Rantoul girls basketball team finished 4-1 at Oakwood’s Comet Classic, capturing third place with a 48-31 win over Westville Friday night.
GIBSON CITY — The Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley High School boys basketball team knew it would be at a disadvantage through at least its first three games of the GCMS Thanksgiving Tournament.
RANTOUL — He knows where the season went south. It’s easy to pinpoint.What ended as the worst year in Brett Frerichs’ tenure as Rantoul boys basketball coach was going fairly smooth through 16 games.
FISHER — It’s going to be a challenge. No doubt about it, says Cody Diskin.The Fisher boys basketball coach knows it could be a bumpy road at first in his fourth season in charge of the program.
ARMSTRONG — There will be a changing of the guard in 2018-19 at Armstrong-Potomac.Deon Mennenga has returned from his coaching hiatus to take charge of the Trojans’ boys basketball program and is looking to establish a new culture in town.
Wrestlebacks are back.A cut day now exists in golf.And a mercy rule is in place for basketball season.Those are among the notable IHSA rule changes for the 2018-19 academic year that will affect the state wrestling and golf tournaments, as well as lopsided regular-season basketball games.