With only a few days remaining before the start of the Illinois High School Association girls state basketball tournament, one thing is for certain: the Little Illini Conference race has become a two-team affair. But, before Mt. Carmel and Paris can both even reach the Tuesday winner-take-all meeting, they must first clear other league hurdles.
Mt. Carmel, ranked 10th in the latest AP Class 2A poll, is 5-0 and atop the league standings. The Lady Aces, who improved to 19-7 on the season with a 51-30 win over Carmi (14-9) on Wednesday, travel to Casey-Westfield (0-4, 9-16) on Friday night.
Paris (19-4 overall), a notch back in the standings at 4-0 after a 48-35 victory over Olney (3-3, 13-12) on Wednesday, hosts Lawrenceville (1-3, 10-14) on Thursday, then a rescheduled game at home against Robinson (2-3, 15-11) on Saturday night.
Macy Bicknell led the Paris attack against Olney, scoring 14 points. Pailynne Camp added 10 points. Olney was led by Aliyah Flittner, who scored 17 points. Also hitting double figures was Kelysse Weiler with 10 points.
Mt. Carmel girl’s basketball legend Tyra Buss (Davison), a two-time Illinois Ms. Basketball award winner more than a decade ago, set almost every basketball record at The Hilltop during her career. However, one of them was erased on Wednesday. Riley Hershey set a new career assist mark against Carmi. Hershey’s total is now 432 assists .. and counting.
For the record, there are 28 LIC games played during the season. A total of 19 have been played to date, with six of the remaining league games scheduled for this week. That will leave just three LIC games for the final week of the regular-season.
Here is the girl’s schedule for the remainder of the week:
Thursday
x-Newton at Casey-Westfield, 6:00 p.m.
x-Lawrenceville at Paris, 6:00 p.m.
x-Robinson at Marshall, 6:00 p.m.
Friday
x-Mt. Carmel at Casey-Westfield, 6:00 p.m.
x-Lawrenceville at Olney, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
x-Robinson at Paris, 1:00 p.m.
Newton at Cumberland, 2:30 p.m.
Mt. Vernon at Olney, 4:30 p.m.
All times CST. x-denotes league game.
