Rangers #3 seed in the Boys Class 3A Carbondale/Centralia Sub sectional

Centralia (H.S.) Sectional (22T) (map)

Manager: Lee Bennett

Phone: 618-532-7636, Fax: 618-532-9286

E-mail: lbennett@centraliahs.org

Sub-Sectional A

1. Alton (Marquette)

2. East St. Louis (Sr.)

#3. Highland

4. Bethalto (Civic Memorial)

5. Columbia

6. Cahokia (H.S.)

7. Mascoutah

8. Breese (Mater Dei)

9. Breese (Central)

10. Freeburg

11. Troy (Triad)

#12. Waterloo (H.S.)

Sub-Sectional B

1. Centralia (H.S.)

#2. Carbondale (H.S.)

3. Benton

4. Murphysboro

5. Marion (H.S.)

6. Salem

#7. Mt. Vernon (H.S.)

8. Metropolis (Massac County)

9. Herrin (H.S.)

10. Carterville

Link for state wide seedings

http://ihsa.org/SportsActivities/BoysBasketball/StateSeriesInformationResults.aspx?url=/data/bkb/3seed.htm

Rangerettes fall to Carbondale in Mt. Vernon Class 3A Regional

MT. VERNON –  Carbondale withstood two Benton runs in the second and fourth quarters to hold off the Rangerettes, 47-39, and advance to the finals of the Mount Vernon 3A girls basketball regionals Wednesday.

“We got their lead down to three in second and to four in the fourth, but just couldn’t get over the hump,” said Benton coach Andy Sloan. “Obviously we’re not a real big team so we’re a jump shooting team and when we don’t hit many shots we don’t look very good. I was a little worried about the nerves with two kids who have never started in a regional before, but after the first quarter everything was fine. It just came down to they were better than us tonight and they deserved to win. We just made too many mistakes.”

Mady Wallace led Benton in scoring with twelve points on the night, Ember Milby 11, and Eb Casey had eight in her last game in a Rangerette uniform.

Please click on the link below for the full story from Geary Dentison of the Southern Illinoisan.

http://thesouthern.com/sports/high-school/basketball/girls/girls-basketball-carbondale-to-meet-salem-in-regional-title-game/article_e9422157-c1cc-556f-ad08-b843f4b9a84e.html

 

 

Saluki Men’s Basketball wins OT thriller over Missouri State, 81-80

By Tom Weber – Associate AD/Communications, SIUC

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Aaron Cook made two free throws with 4.1 seconds left in overtime to lift Southern Illinois to a dramatic, come-from-behind win over Missouri State, 81-80, on Wednesday night at SIU Arena.

The Salukis (18-10, 10-5) stayed a game ahead of Drake for second place in the Missouri Valley Conference standings and remained two games back of league-leading Loyola with three games left to play in the regular season.

“Our goal is to win a Missouri Valley championship — that’s number one — we’re hanging in there by a thread, but we’re still in it,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “Our second goal is to go to postseason. When I say postseason, there’s only two tournaments that I’m referring to, whether it be the NCAA or the NIT.”

The game was another classic between two teams that traded big shots and big runs, just as they did two weeks ago in Springfield, where the Salukis won, 79-77. The hard-luck Bears (17-11, 7-8) led by 11 points early, trailed by two at halftime, rallied from five down in the final three minutes, were up by four with 2:26 to go in OT, but lost another heartbreaker.

“They kept the heat on us,” Hinson acknowledged. “We had to score every time down the floor. We didn’t have a chance where we could miss a bucket.”

Sean Lloyd had 20 second half points in SIU’s overtime win over Missouri State Wednesday night at the Arena. (Madison Case-SIU Salukis photo)

Southern was led by junior guards Armon Fletcher and Sean Lloyd, who scored 22 and 21 points, respectively. Lloyd was a beast in the second half, when he flat-out carried his team by scoring 20 of its 35 points.

“We ran a lot of sets for him, posted him up, and boy did he deliver,” Hinson said.

Fletcher came up big in OT, scoring four points in the final minute, including a driving layup with 34 seconds left that put Southern up, 79-78.

Missouri State countered, though, with an eight-foot floater by Jarred Dixon with nine seconds left and that set up the late-game heroics for Cook, who pushed the ball the length of the floor and was fouled in the lane by freshman guard Mustafa Lawrence. He calmly made both ends of a one-and-one — redeeming himself for missing four free throws in overtime a week ago in a loss at Illinois State.

“When we got back from Illinois State, he stayed in this gym until four o’clock in the morning shooting free throws,” Hinson said. “I saw the look in his eye and never doubted him once.”

A crowd of 4,285 had to hold its breath twice as SIU dodged a pair of bullets that could have cost it the game. In regulation, the score was tied, 70-70, when MSU’s Jarrid Rhodes missed a wide-open 3-pointer at the buzzer.

“Jarrid Rhodes gets a clean look to win the game — you need those to go,” said Missouri State head coach Paul Lusk. “It’s a different narrative if the shot goes in that Rhodes takes at the end of regulation.”

Again in overtime the Bears had a chance to win it at the buzzer. After Cook’s free throws, Dixon drove the length of the floor and put up a runner that fell short. Teammate Obediah Church tipped in the miss at the buzzer, but after a review, the officials determined his shot came after the clock hit 0:00.

After starting the conference season 3-4, the Salukis have won eight of their last nine.

“If we were at a high-major, this would be a national story for what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished,” Hinson said. “I’m just a proud peacock right now. They’re giving me every ounce of energy they’ve got.”

Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8039&path=mbball

Murphysboro Sophomore Tournament pairings released

IHSA Board of Directors Updates Sanctioning Policy

BLOOMINGTON – The IHSA Board of Directors met for their regularly scheduled meeting at the IHSA office in Bloomington on Monday, February 12, 2018, where the Board announced a significant change to the IHSA Sanctioning Policy (Policy 8).

The Board added new language to Policy 8 that prohibits IHSA schools from hosting events/tournaments that include junior high teams, as well as non-high school teams (i.e, a high school team that is not a member of its state high school association). Per the Policy 8 change, the IHSA will no longer approve sanctioning for its member schools to host events which feature non-high school teams.

The new Policy 8 language reads: “In order for an event to receive sanctioning in Illinois all invited and participating schools in the event must be member schools of their high school state association or approved for competition by their respective high school state association. If any listed school does not receive approval the event will be denied by the IHSA. Any non-high school team cannot be involved in any respect with a sanctioned event.”

“We believe this policy update makes a strong statement about the importance of education-based athletics at the high school level,” said Anderson. “The growing integration of junior high games within high school events has the potential to create, or at very least create the perception of, issues with the IHSA’s recruitment by-laws. We believe it is in the best interest of both groups to maintain separate events.”

Previously, an IHSA school could host a sanctioned tournament or event with a non-high school team (junior high or high schools that are not members of their state high school associations) as long as the competing IHSA schools did not play against those teams.

“To not have this policy seems counterintuitive,” said Anderson. “High school sports are built on community and we believe our schools should compete against, and alongside, like-minded teams. We want the events our schools host to be built on those merits, not on barnstorming all-star teams comprised from players throughout a state or from around the country.”

ACTION ITEMS

1. The Board voted to approve Huddle/GoFan as the official digital ticketing partner of IHSA State Series and State Championship events.

2. The Board approved a recommendation to set its meetings dates for the 2018-19 school year:
August 20, 2018
September 10, 2018
October 10, 2018
December 10, 2018
January 9, 2019
February 11, 2019
March 16, 2019
April 16, 2019
June 10, 2019

ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The Board approved the consent items from the Advisory Committees in the following sports & activities: Boys/Girls Cross Country, Football, Boys/Girls Golf, Boys/Girls Tennis, Boys/Girls Volleyball, Sportsmanship.

Consent items are recommendations that received approval from the sport/activity advisory committee, the Athletic Administrators Advisory Committee and the IHSA staff.

Non-consent items are recommendations from sport or activity committees that did not receive a majority vote from the Athletic Advisory Committee or IHSA staff.

No Non-consent item was/were approved.

Some consent items of note include:
Cross Country
1. State Series roster size increased from 12 to 14 runners.

Boys Volleyball
1. Friday State Final schedule match times adjusted to Match 1: 10:30 AM, 11:30 AM, 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM.

APPEALS & ELIGIBILITY RULINGS
No appeals

DISCUSSION ITEMS

At each meeting of the Board of Directors, there are certain items the Board discusses, but upon which no action is taken. The following is a report of those items from the February 12, 2018, agenda:
1. The Board discussed the Legislative Commission voting from the 2017 meetings.

2. The Board discussed Head Strong Concussion Insurance. The IHSA will work to present the concussion insurance program options to member schools.

3. The Executive Director informed the Board that two schools have been suspended from membership for failure to attend an IHSA Town Hall meeting this year or any of the subsequent make-up meetings. Chicago (ACE Tech Charter) and Chicago (Young Women’s Leadership) have been suspended until January 18, 2019.

4. IHSA staff members will participate in the Polar Plunge to benefit Special Olympics on February 24.

Cardinals premium & Opening Day Flex Packs on sale this week

Flex Packs guarantee fans tickets to Opening Day or top Cubs weekend games in 2018

ST. LOUIS, MO – As part of a continued effort to make Opening Day and Cubs weekend game tickets available to as many fans as possible, the Cardinals announced that Premium and Opening Day Flex Packs will go on sale this week at cardinals.com/flexpacks. Details of the Flex Packs are as follows:

  • Premium Flex Pack: Fans may choose one game from a list of five premium Chicago Cubs dates plus a minimum of any two additional 2018 games, excluding Opening Day and the remaining premium dates. This season’s premium Cubs dates include games on Saturday, May 5; Friday, June 15; Saturday, June 26; Friday, July 27; and Saturday, July 28.  Premium Flex Packs go on sale Wednesday, February 14 at 10:00 a.m. CT.
  • Opening Day Flex Pack: Fans may choose Opening Day tickets (April 5 vs. Arizona Diamondbacks) plus a minimum of any two additional 2018 games, except for three Saturday dates (May 5, June 16 and July 8).  Opening Day Flex Packs go on sale Thursday, February 15 at 10:00 a.m. CT.

Each Flex Pack is limited to eight per customer. Fans can also guarantee tickets to Opening Day by purchasing a Full Season plan, a Half Season plan, or the 10-game Opening Day Pack, all of which are currently on sale at cardinals.com/tickets.

Rosenthal – KMOV reporting Cardinals sign journeyman right-hander Bud Norris

Bud Norris in his playing days with the Houston Astros. Zimbo image. 

ST. LOUIS, MO – Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic and KMOV-TV in St. Louis reported within the last hours the Cardinals have signed journeyman pitcher Bud Norris as a free agent.

The starter turned reliever had a record of 2-6 last season, with a 4.21 ERA last season with 19 saves for the Anaheim Angels.

Norris pitched the first five seasons of his career (2009-2014) with the Houston Astros.  He struggled against the rest of the league, but he had the Cardinals’ number when Houston was in the National League.

Further information will be added to this story as it becomes available.

KMOV-TV Link

http://www.kmov.com/story/37484507/reports-bud-norris-signs-with-cardinals

Bud Norris’ career stats

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/n/norribu01.shtml

 

Saluki Men’s Basketball pulls away in second half for 74-57 win over Bradley

By Tom Weber- SIU Associate AD/Sports information –

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Center Kavion Pippen had 21 points on 10-of-12 shooting, and Southern Illinois made four 3-pointers during a three-minute stretch of the second half, to blow open a close game and beat Bradley, 74-57, on Sunday at SIU Arena.

Combined with Illinois State’s loss at Valparaiso, the Salukis (17-10, 9-5) regained sole possession of second place in the Missouri Valley Conference with four games left to play. They trail first place Loyola by two games and have a one-game lead over ISU and Drake.

Kavion Pippen going up for two of his game high 21 points against Bradley at the SIU Arena yesterday, (Photos from Tom Weber)

A burly 6-foot-10 junior college transfer, Pippen has emerged as one of the league’s most dominant big men. He has scored double figures in five-straight games, including a pair of 21-point outings.

“Kavion’s getting better,” said SIU head coach Barry Hinson. “Coach (Brad) Autry is doing a great job with Kavion and his development. He’s starting to be more comfortable. He hit that wall (earlier in the season) and we backed off him a little bit in practice.”

Pippen, who was battling a stomach bug, made 5-of-7 shots in the first half and all five of his attempts in the second. Still, the Salukis were trailing, 36-33, early in the second half before Aaron Cook got hot from three. First, he buried a trey from the left corner to tie the game. On Southern’s next possession he drained a triple from the right corner.

“Those were kerosene shots — the igniting that we needed,” Hinson said.

The hot shooting was contagious, as Armon Fletcher hit a 3-ball the next trip down the court. Cook’s final 3-pointer with 14:24 left gave SIU a 47-39 lead. Tyler Smithpeters also made two 3-pointers as SIU connected on 7-of-10 from long range in the second half after going 1-for-4 in the first.

“Give Southern Illinois credit, they made some tough threes that really opened up the game for them,” said Bradley coach Brian Wardle, whose team dropped to 1-6 on the road in MVC games.

Bradley came as close as seven, 62-55, on a Jayden Hodgson 3-pointer with 6:00 remaining, but the Braves missed 10 of their last 11 shots and SIU finished the game on a 12-2 run.

Southern shot 56 percent from the field, compared to 38 percent by Bradley.

“I did not think we could win this ballgame unless we got the percentages in the low 40s or high 30s,” Hinson said.

Reserve post player Jonathan Wiley gave the Saluki’s some much needed minutes off the bench in his return.

SIU senior forward Jonathan Wiley made his first appearance for the Salukis since Dec. 31. Hinson said he has three ligament tears in his knee and is playing in pain, but he gave the team 13 minutes off the bench and scored four points and added four rebounds.

“I can’t begin to tell you how much a plus this is going to be for us,” Hinson said.

The Salukis split the season series with Bradley, avenging a six-point loss in Peoria on Jan. 9.

“I think we’re a different team now because everybody is comfortable with their rotations, they know they’re going to play, they’re telling us when their tired now,” Hinson said.

Box Score

http://siusalukis.com/boxscore.aspx?id=8038&path=mbball

 

Suspected EHD Cases in Deer at Low to Moderate Level in 2017

SPRINGFIELD, IL – Suspected EHD (Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease) cases were reported again in Illinois in 2017, but in low to moderate levels.  A total of 66 reports were received from concerned landowners and hunters totaling 169 deer from 32 counties, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).  In comparison, 2012 was the worst year for EHD in Illinois with 2,968 dead deer reported to IDNR from 87 counties.

EHD is a viral disease, spread by biting gnats, which can cause high fever and severe internal bleeding in deer.  While often fatal to deer, EHD is not hazardous to humans or pets.  EHD-like symptoms in cattle have been reported where EHD has been confirmed in deer.  Cattle can be successfully treated with medications.  EHD is often confused with bluetongue, a similar disease that can affect sheep and cattle.

EHD was reported at low levels in the southern third of the state, as well as in west central Illinois extending up the Illinois River valley.  A more intensive outbreak was reported in the west central Illinois county of Pike (80 cases).

EHD does not impact deer populations evenly across the landscape.  A mixture of deer combined with the presence of the virus and midges (biting gnats) that transmit the disease between deer are necessary for an EHD outbreak to occur. Heavy deer mortality can be observed on one farm, while the farm down the road will be hardly affected.

EHD affects bucks as well as does, adults as well as fawns and yearlings, though individual deer vary in their susceptibility to the virus.  Some deer become infected and will be dead within 48 hours, while other deer will be minimally affected.  Survivors of infection develop immunity to the virus.

Dead deer are often found near water sources such as lakes, ponds, or streams, though a deer carcass found away from water is also likely to have succumbed to EHD.

EHD-related mortality occurs every year, but becomes more severe during droughty conditions.  Limited water sources concentrate deer near exposed mudflats resulting from receding water levels.  Midges hatch from these exposed muddy areas, resulting in abundant insect populations.

There is no effective management treatment for this disease.  EHD outbreaks end when a heavy frost kills the midges necessary for transmission.

For more information about the EHD in Illinois, contact Doug Dufford, Wildlife Disease and Invasive Species Program Manager with IDNR by email at doug.dufford@illinois.gov or by phone at 815-369-2414.

 

A table showing the number of reports and cases by county is presented below.  A map showing the distribution of EHD-related deer mortality reports in Illinois for 2017 is also presented below.

 

Table 1.  2017 EHD Suspected Case Summary by County

County

# Reports

# Deer

Adams

1

1

Alexander

1

8

Bond

1

2

Carroll

1

1

Cass

1

2

Clay

1

2

Clinton

1

1

Fayette

2

2

Franklin

1

3

Fulton

1

2

Hamilton

1

2

Hancock

1

2

Hardin

1

1

Jasper

1

3

Jefferson

1

2

Jersey

1

1

Johnson

3

4

LaSalle

1

1

Lawrence

2

2

Marion

1

1

Marshall

1

1

Monroe

1

1

Peoria

1

1

Perry

2

5

Pike

17

80

Randolph

5

13

Sangamon

5

5

St. Clair

1

1

Union

3

7

Wayne

3

4

White

1

1

Williamson

2

7

Total

66

169

Cubs sign pitcher Yu Darvish to six-year, $126 million deal

Dodgers starting pitcher Yu Darvish throws during the first inning of Game 7 of the World Series against the Astros in Los Angeles on Nov. 1, 2017. (Matt Slocum / AP)

CHICAGO – It took nearly the entire offseason, but the Cubs have landed the biggest free agent Saturday.

They agreed to terms on a six-year contract with pitcher Yu Darvish that will guarantee the prized right-hander $126 million, a source confirmed.

The deal cannot be announced until Darvish, 31, passes a physical examination. But it apparently completes the team’s mission of fortifying their rotation with free agents Jake Arrieta and John Lackey departing.

Please read the rest of the story from Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-yu-darvish-20180210-story.html

 

Benton, West Frankfort, Illinois News | Franklin County News