A tough stretch for the PORTA-AC Central boys basketball team got even tougher as the Jays dropped two tight conference games to good teams last week to push their losing streak to five games. PORTA-AC has lost eight of their last nine to fall to 12-16 on the year and 1-6 in the Sangamo Conference.
Add undefeated Sangamo Conference Champions to the ever-growing list of accomplishments for the 2023-2024 PORTA-AC Central Lady Bluejays.
A whipping of rival Pleasant Plains last week gave the Lady Jays a perfect 8-0 mark in the conference and the championship. Wins over Athens and Canton pushed their record to 29-1 overall entering postseason play.
The best season in twenty years for the BHS girls’ basketball team came to an end in the first round of regional play on the road at West Hancock.
The Lady Tigers finished the year with a record of 12-19 which is the most wins in a season since they won 17 in 2003-2004. After winning a maximum of seven games for six years running, Beardstown has won twelve, nine and eleven the last three and Coach Jimmy Maltby will return a very solid core of players for next year. Having joined the West Central Conference, BHS was obligated to make up a snowed-out game against West Hancock, meaning they would face the Titans twice in the final week of the season. A loss to West Central in the middle meant a three-game skid to end the season.
The third time was the charm for the Triopia-Meredosia-Virginia Lady Trojan basketball team as they beat South Fork for the first time in three tries to win in the opening round of their own regional.
In a process that is yet to make sense to me, the Lady Trojans traveled to the better seeded Ponies home floor in the opening game even though Triopia is the Regional host. Nevertheless, Triopia got the win, roping and tying the Ponies in 43 to 38 victory, moving to 14-14 on the season. Prior to regional action, the Trojans knocked off North Greene and lost to Pawnee.
A strategic defensive adjustment by coach Eric Anderson and an increase in intensity for the Beardstown boys’ basketball team turned a five-point halftime deficit into a 72 to 52 runaway home win over the Western Wildcats in the Tigers only game last week.
For the second straight year, the season of a very good Triopia Trojan eighth grade basketball team was ended by a very good Pawnee eighth grade basketball team.
After a second-round win over a pesky Springfield Little Flower team, the young Trojans lost to Pawnee 39 to 32 in the Regional Championship game held at Springfield Blessed Sacrament last Thursday.
The Virginia Redbird eighth grade boys’ basketball season ended with a second-round regional loss to the top seeded hosts, Augusta Southeastern.
It was an ominous start for the Birds as they failed to score in the opening quarter but found themselves only down by five. A 14 to 6 second frame gave the Suns a 19 to 6 halftime lead. They would stretch the margin to 26 to 9 after three quarters. The Redbirds won the fourth period 10 to 5 but it was too little too late in the season ending 31 to 19 loss.
The AADM (All About Dance & More) Airborne Team attended an USTA Invitational meet at the Stephen Decatur Middle School in Decatur, on Jan. 27th-28th.
This meet was an open invitational meet, hosting 31 clubs. There were 25 athletes from the Airborne team that competed in 65 events total on tumbling, trampoline, and double mini. Seventy-four percent of these athletes placed in the top 5 in their events, placed 9th in the overall team finals, and 64 event scores earned a 9.0 or higher in scoring (out of a 10). A team challenge that athletes have is to beat their top scores from previous meets. There were 20 scores that beat their personal best scores at this meet. Athletes were coached at this meet by Sara Hoots, Sarah Allen, Emery Maliongas, Pyper Sussenbach, Alyssa Campbell.
The Beardstown Lady Tigers picked up a conference win and a nice momentum builder heading to regionals with a 46 to 43 road win last Thursday over the Mendon Unity Mustangs. The Mustangs were 15-11 prior to the loss and had beaten the Tigers 43 to 27 on November 18 and 42 to 29 in the Lady Tiger Classic. Beardstown opened the week with a tough 55 to 54 conference road loss to Liberty on Tuesday.
The PORTA-AC Central Bluejays lost three times last week to fall below .500 on the year at 12-14. They fell at home to New Berlin and on the road at Riverton in Sangamo Conference games to fall to 1-4 in conference play. On Saturday the Bluejays had to match up with 3A Rantoul in a Sangamo-Illini Prairie inter-conference shootout and lost 51 to 40 to the Eagles.