Lawrenceville has drawn perhaps the most pre-season attention of any Little Illini Conference boys basketball team. After all, the Indians are the defending LIC tournament champions from last season, have three starters back from last year’s 24-8 Regional championship team, and have a lofty Top 5 ranking in one Class 1A pre-season poll to their credit (You read that right, they are now a Class 1A school).
After one week of the regular-season, it’s easy to see why. Lawrenceville steamrolled its’ way through the Capital Classic field, going 4-0 for the weekend, including a 56-51 victory over powerhouse Teutopolis in the championship game. En route, second-year coach Tad Shick’s club polished off LIC nemesis Olney, 52-32, in addition to Vincennes Lincoln, Ind. and Salem.
The Indians are but one of three LIC teams to make it through the first week of the season unscathed. Casey-Westfield and Robinson are both 2-0 after weather-truncated holiday weekend tournament play. In all, six league teams are at or above the .500 mark heading into the second week.
It is an important week, too, because the first LIC games of the season lie ahead. There are three league tilts on the docket for Friday night, the first of three consecutive December Fridays full of conference matchups.
A total of five LIC teams were impacted by the weather, with only the Capital Classic getting all the games in as scheduled. Casey-Westfield, Marshall, and Newton all missed games at a tourney at Cumberland, Paris had one game wiped out at Danville Schlarman, and Robinson had a game at the Martinsville tourney canceled.
Here is the lineup for the week ahead. Records (according to Max Preps) are listed in parenthesis. This schedule is subject to change.
Notes: The LIC is 15-9 (.625) in non-conference games to date.
Tuesday, Dec. 2
Casey-Westfield (2-0) at Effingham (1-2), 6:00 p.m.
OPH (3-2) at Lawrenceville (4-0), 6:00 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 5
x-Paris (2-1) at Newton (1-1), 6:00 p.m.
x-Robinson (2-0)) at Olney (2-2), 6:00 p.m.
x-Mt. Carmel (2-3) at Marshall (2-0), 6:15 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 6
Paris (2-1) at Sullivan, Ind. (1-0), 11:00 a.m.
Elmhurst Timothy Christian (3-0) at Newton (1-1), 2:00 p.m.
Robinson (2-0) vs. Carlisle County, Ky. (0-1) at Marion, 2:30 p.m.
Lawrenceville (4-0) vs. Mounds Meridian (0-3) at Marion, 4:00 p.m.
All times CST.
x-denotes conference game
