Mt. Carmel and Paris – the two teams most in Little Illini Conference girls basketball circles have talked the most about for the last two seasons.

Last year, it was Mt. Carmel, buoyed by the LIC tournament title, which made a run all the way to the IHSA Class 2A state tournament in Bloomington-Normal, where the Lady Aces finished off a 31-5 season by defeating Chicago Phillips, 50-38 to earn a third-place finish in the tourney won easily by Nashville.

This year, Paris has garnered most of the attention. Though Mt. Carmel currently leads the LIC standings with a 5-0 record, Paris is ranked sixth in the latest AP Class 2A poll, sporting a 15-2 overall mark that includes the championship of the State Farm Classic, also played in Bloomington-Normal though not at CEFCU Arena where the state finals are played. The Tiger program is always good, with 24 straight winning seasons to their credit.

Paris is seeded No. 1 and Mt. Carmel (13-7 overall but with a beefed-up schedule) is No. 2 in the LIC in-season tournament which gets underway Saturday in Marshall. While those two appear to be the favorites coming in, six of eight LIC teams have winning records and are capable of taking either one down.

There are still two conference and three non-conference games ahead of the tournament. Marshall plays in both the LIC games: Thursday in a make-up game against visiting Olney, then on Friday at Casey-Westfield. That means the seventh-seeded Lions will be playing their third game in three days when they open tourney play against Mt. Carmel on Saturday afternoon. Paris has perhaps its toughest non-conference road game of the year on Thursday at fourth-ranked (Class 2A) Effingham.

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Paris jumped to a 20-6 first-quarter lead and never looked back in a 67-23 rout of Mattoon on Monday. Macy Bicknell paced the Tigers with 23 points. Mt. Carmel, too, had an easy time of it on Monday. The Lady Aces raced to a 27-4 lead over Olney and coasted in from there to a 57-34 LIC win. Olney suffered its’ first conference loss of the season.

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Here’s the schedule leading up to the LIC tournament:

Thursday, Jan. 15
x-Olney (2-1, 10-7) at Marshall (0-3, 8-6), 6:00 p.m.
Mt. Carmel (13-7) at Jasper, Ind. (15-6), 5:30 p.m.
#6 2A Paris (15-2) at #4 2A Effingham (16-2), 5:30 p.m.
Shelbyville (8-5) at Newton (12-7), 5:30 p.m.

Friday, Jan. 16
x-Marshall (0-3, 8-6) at Casey-Westfield (0-3, 9-12), 6:00 p.m.
Robinson (10-9) at OPH (12-8), 6:00 p.m.

–All times CST.
x-denotes conference game.