By Scott Allen
& Josh Brown

(MARSHALL) — Mt. Carmel overwhelmed Paris in the third quarter, then held on from there to post a 55-47 upset victory in the championship game of the Little Illini Conference girls basketball tournament in Marshall Friday night.

Trailing seventh-ranked (Class 2A) Paris 21-19 at halftime, the Lady Aces engineered a 25-14 third-quarter turnaround that left them ahead by nine points entering the fourth quarter.

“Our defense was really good (in the first half), but offensively we weren’t finishing strong at the rim. We were floating away from the basket,” said Mt. Carmel coach Matt McCarty. “In the third quarter we started attacking the rim and finishing strong.”

Then, when the Tigers closed to within four points, 47-43, with two minutes left, Mt. Carmel finished on an 8-4 sput to put the title game away. “(Paris) tried pressing us and we handled the ball where we were able to run 20 or 30 seconds off each possession and they had to start fouling,” McCarty said. “We went to the line and cashed in free throws.”

For Mt. Carmel, it was their second consecutive LIC tournament championship. The Aces improved to 17-7 on the season with their fifth straight win. Paris fell to 17-4 with the loss. The Tigers had previously lost to Teutopolis (twice) and Effingham, both state-ranked teams.

Six-foot-four senior Macy Randall led Mt. Carmel with 25 points. Evie Sellers and Riley Hershey, both juniors, each finished in double figures with 10 points. Leading the way for Paris was Pailynne Camp with 17 points, including three of Paris’ four 3-point field goals. Paedyn Keys, like Camp a sophomore, added 13 points.

While the rest of the state may view this as an upset, Mt. Carmel could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. Last year, an unranked Aces team won the LIC tourney title for the first time and carried that momentum into the post-season where they finished third at the IHSA Class 2A state tournament in Bloomington-Normal. They brought back four starters from that 31-5 team and beefed up the schedule. However, that has left the Aces dinged up record-wise this season.

McCarty said “all seven of our losses have come against ranked opponents, but we’re doing what we should be doing against everyone else. That kind of gets overlooked at times, especially when you play out of state teams.”

Paris gets a shot at revenge in the regular-season LIC matchup between the two, scheduled for Thursday in Mt. Carmel. Both teams are unbeaten in league play: Mt. Carmel is 5-0, Paris 3-0. Two days after the Tiger rematch, Mt. Carmel hosts Effingham, which is 3-0 already versus LIC opposition.

In the third-place game, Robinson pulled off another minor upset, as the fifth-seeded Lady Maroons edged third-seeded Olney, 45-41.

Robinson built an 18-10 lead by the end of the first quarter and maintained a 29-21 advantage at halftime. Olney rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Robinson 11-4 to pull within 33-32 heading into the fourth quarter. However, the Lady Maroons righted the ship in the final period, outscoring Olney 12-9 to seal the win.

Zoe Tuttle led Robinson with 16 points, while Leah Correll was also in double figures with 14 and Lillie McDonald added nine. Aliyah Flittner led Olney with 19 points, while Kelysse Weiler scored 11.

Robinson (13-10) is scheduled to play at Paris for a regular season LIC contest Monday, while Olney (11-10) is slated to play host to Lawrenceville Monday.

The final round began on Thursday night, with two consolation placement games. In the seventh-place game, Lawrenceville (9-14) defeated Casey-Westfield (9-16), 46-23, while Newton downed Marshall, 68-54, in the fifth-place game.

Newton (15-8) has been a model of consistency all year long, and it showed against Marshall. The Eagles put five players in double figures, and just missed adding a sixth by one point. Here’s the lengthy list of double-digit finishers: Izzy Meinhart (16 points), Alani Bergbower (13), Claire Probst (10), Grace Schumacher (10), and Allie Hermann (10).

Marshall (11-8) countered with a balanced attack all its’ own. The Lions were led by Ella Mattas with 18 points, followed by Marlee Heighton and Lynn Wellborn, with 12 points apiece.

These two teams will turn right around and face each other again on Monday in the regular-season LIC game at Newton.

This story will be updated as new information becomes available.