(BLOOMINGTON) — The Paris girls basketball team made the biggest LIC splash of the holiday break by capturing the prestigious State Farm Classic championship here on Tuesday. The Tigers knocked off top-seed Winnebago, 53-40, in the title game played at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Paris, seeded third, improved to 12-2 on the season with the victory. The Tigers led at each quarter stop, then outscored Winnebago 18-11 in the fourth quarter to put an exclamation point on the triumph. Winnebago fell to 13-2 with the loss.

Junior Macy Bicknell was named to the all-tournament team. Paris has only one senior on the roster, Kilee Edwards.

Dave Tingley’s Tigers opened tournament play with a 73-42 win over Olympia on Friday. They followed that with a 47-34 quarterfinal-round victory over Normal U. High on Saturday. On Monday in the semi-finals, Paris outlasted Rockford Lutheran, which had knocked off No. 2-seed Port Byron Riverdale in the prior round, in a wild double-overtime thriller, 55-52.

The State Farm Classic is the largest holiday tournament in the state, bringing together 64 teams split into four 16-team divisions, with large and small-school tournaments for both boys and girls.

This year marked the best finish yet for Paris in five trips to the State Farm Classic. The Tigers finished second in 2022, entering as the No. 1 seed that year but falling to seventh-seeded Camp Point Central in the finals, and third twice, in 2021 and last year.

Other State Farm tournament winners were: Washington in the large-school girls division, along with Quincy Notre Dame (small) and Normal Community (large) on the boys side. All four finals were played at Shirk Center on the IWU campus.

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Mt. Carmel, which sits alone atop the LIC standings with a 3-0 mark, finished second at the Benton Girls Christmas Classic. The Lady Aces, 11-5 overall, lost to Bethalto Civic Memorial (10-3) in the final, 62-38. Zoie Randall and Riley Hershey were both named to the all-tourney. team.

Olney (9-5) also played at Benton. The Tigers won the 11th-place matchup with a 48-36 win over Salem.

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Newton (10-6) and Lawrenceville (5-11) both played at the Merry Mule Tournament in Fairfield, which began on Saturday. After winning both pool play games and the crossover game, Newton fell to the hosts in the championship game, 48-44. Lawrenceville ended up in the third-place game, falling to Edwards County, 61-29.

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Marshall (5-6) played at the Dieterich Holiday Tournament. The Lions lost on Monday to the host Maroons,63-57, in the third-place game.

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Robinson (5-9) was the only LIC team to stay at home for the holidays, as the Maroons hosted Holidaze Hoops on Saturday. They defeated a solid 8-2 Tri-County team followed by Indiana opponent Shakamak (6-5). Casey-Westfield (8-8) was there, too, losing to Tri-County and Shakamak.

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Three more milestones to announce!

Congratulations to Marshall’s Lynn Welborn for scoring her career 1,000th-point at the Dieterich Holiday Tournament!

Riley Hershey of Mt. Carmel joined the points parade with her 1,000th career point at the Benton Christmas Classic!

Addeline Sanders of Lawrenceville has also cleared the 1,000-point hurdle!

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Mark your calendar: Paris travels to Mt. Carmel on Thursday, Jan. 29 for a regular-season LIC matchup. The two could meet even earlier, with hardware on the line, at the LIC in-season tournament. Newton, Olney, and others may still alter those plans.

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This story will be edited as more information becomes available. The LIC standings table is yet to be updated. All season records listed are from Massey.