The 2nd annual Taylorville Shootout will take place on Saturday starting at 1 PM.
Game 1 Western (8-7) vs St. Thomas More (8-5)
The Western Wildcats are from Barry, Illinois and are coached by Curtis Stout. They have a balanced scoring attack and led by Kyle Colgrove, 6'1 senior forward with 13.6 ppg. The Wildcats are coming off of a 2nd place finish at the Mississippi Valley Invitational Tournament.
The St. Thomas More Sabers are from Champaign and led by Coach Alex Anderson. They compete in the Illini Prairie. They are led in scoring by 3 sophomores, Dawson Magrini, David Hubbard, and Patrick Quarnstrom.
Game 2 Limestone (4-9) vs Centennial (7-6)
The Mid-Illini Conference member Limestone Rockets from Bartonville are led by Eddie Mathews, who played baseball and basketball at Bradley. Mathews was also the stand in pitcher for Tim Robbins in the movie "Bull Durham." Look for 6'4" Nathan Thornton to lead the Rockets.
The Centennial High School from Champaign are coached by Tim Lavin, who coached his Charger team to a state championship in 2009. Termarion Howard just finished a solid Effingham/T-town Christmas classic and received an all-tournament selection.
Game 3 Normal West (4-8) vs Mahomet-Seymour (7-5)
The Normal West Wildcats are led by 1st-year head coach, longtime assistant Ed Hafferman. This is a contest of big athletes. Corey Walker is a 6'6" 220-pound tight end football recruit with interest from Big 10 schools.
The Mahomet-Seymour Bulldogs, coached by Ryan Bosch, just won the consolation championship is the big school division of the State Farm Holiday Classic. 6'7" UW-Milwaukee commit Grant Coleman is their leading scorer.
Game 4 Glenbrook South (13-1) vs Peoria Notre Dame (13-1)
This is a matchup of heavyweight contenders as both teams look to make deep runs in March. Phil Ralston's Glenbrook South Titans just suffered their first loss of the season to highly regarded Niles Notre Dame in the Wheeling Holiday Tournament Championship. Maxpreps.com ranks the Titans 9th in the all classes in Illinois, 7th in 4A. Watch for prolific scorer 6'4" senior guard Dom Martinelli who scored 51 points vs Buffalo Grove in BG's Thanksgiving Tournament Championship and is his school's all-time leading scorer.
The Peoria Notre Dame Irish are one of, if not the very best team in 3A this season. Coach Tom Lacher's squad is ranked 14th amongst all Illinois schools and moved up to 4th in 3A according to maxpreps.com in the latest computer rankings. Notre Dame's twin brothers Connor and Declan Dillon are both signed to play for NCAA Division II Winona State.
Game 5 Centralia (11-2) vs Taylorville (7-7)
This is a basketball historian's dream come true. Both teams have been playing basketball for over 100 years, own state titles, and have basketball courts named for legendary coaches, Arthur Trout for Centralia and Dolph Stanley for Taylorville. Centralia owns an 8-5 record all-time over Taylorville. Taylorville's 1944 45-0 team won the 1st Annual Centralia Holiday Tournament.
Lee Bennett coaches the Orphans, who just finished 2nd in the CHT to Evanston in overtime. The super-quick Preston Johannes leads the way for Centralia.
Ryan Brown's Taylorville Tornadoes finished 4th in their own holiday tournament. Look for senior point guard all-stater, Jase Bergschneider, to continue moving up Taylorville's all-time boys scoring list. He needs 3 points to move into 2nd.
Catch the Taylorville Boys Basketball game on Newstalk WTIM with the pregame show kicking off at 6:45.
