Teams in the Heart Of Illinois Conference find themselves fighting to either stay at or above, or get to the .500 mark as the new basketball season continues. Currently, the boys’ team from Lexington, with an overall 10-1 record, and the girls’ team from LeRoy, with a 9-6 overall mark are the frontrunners heading into the holiday break.

El Paso-Gridley: Since an 88-61 tournament win over Stanford Olympia, Titans Head Coach Nathaniel Meiss’ boys’ team has stayed on the positive side of Heart of Illinois Conference standings at 6-3 overall including a 3-1 mark over HOIC competitors. The victory over the Spartans was followed by wins over Roanoke Benson, Fisher, Ridgeview, Delavan, and Flanagan-Cornell. The Titans next challenge will be an annual one, as they are seeded 8th in the annual tourney and will play 9th seed East Dubuque at Normal Community West High School Dec. 27 at 9a.m.

EPG Head Girls’ Basketball Coach Hannah Bland’s team is currently at 6-5 overall but its their HOIC opponents who are giving her team the most trouble currently, causing the team to have a 2-4 league record. The largest loss was at home Dec. 1 when Deer Creek Mackinaw leveled a 71-45 win against the Lady Titans. On Dec. 5, Bland’s team lost to Deer Creek-Mackinaw in front of a home crowd, losing to the Chiefs, 71-45. Three days later, on Dec. 8, the Titans were able to outpace Ridgeview, beating the Mustangs, 59-31. Since then, EPG Girls have won 3-out-of-4, with wins over Pontiac, Flanagan-Woodland, and Clinton. Lexington was the only team able to beat EPG in that period.

Heyworth: Head Coach Tom Eller’s 15th season as Heyworth High School boys’ head basketball coach so far has been one where a win one night has been followed immediately by a loss followed by a win, contributing to the Hornets’ 6-5 mark including being 1-2 in conference play. They opened the season on an impressive note Nov. 21 beating Urbana’s University High, 78-30. Their closest scoring game found the Hornets getting stung by Downs Tri-Valley, 58-52 Dec. 9.

Lady Hornets Head Coach Ryan Lawler’s girls’ basketball team has a 7-5 record but most of the positives his team has experienced have not come in wins over HOIC opponents. Lawler’s team is 4-1 when in their own gym but has a 3-4 road record thus far. They have had close games in which they were winners, such as a 48-46 win at Tri-Valley Dec. 7, and a 37-35 win at home over LeRoy. But they have also had off nights where opponents got the better of them, such as a 25-point loss to visiting Fieldcrest Nov. 28 and a 49-18 pounding from Tremont Dec. 12 were the worst of those so far this season.

Lexington: Lexington High School’s boys’ basketball team has played like they were just carrying muskets onto the court. Head Coach Doug Yoder’s troops are 10-1 having dropped only the second game of the year, 68-41, against Prairie Central Nov. 23. Since then, the Minutemen have been on duty winning nine straight games. Their biggest win to date was a non-conference victory over Fisher at the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Thanksgiving Tournament where Lexington beat Fisher, 75-28.

LHS Head Girls’ Basketball Coach Bill Elias’ players find themselves two games below .500 at 5-7, but having their biggest difficulty facing HOIC teams, where they are 1-5 and in 12th place. A pattern has emerged early this season as the Lady Minutemen win one and then lose their next two. That was the current pattern LHS finds itself in as they prepared to face EPG Dec. 15. LHS won that game, 42-38, and will next face

LeRoy: LeRoy High School Girls’ Head Basketball Coach Chris Houser’s team find themselves holding down an overall mark of 9-6 including a 4-2 mark in HOIC play putting them in 5th place in the conference. Although the Lady Panthers experienced a three-point loss to open the season, they went on a four-game winning streak before losing their next game in a non-conference battle against Tolono Unity. The games LeRoy won came against Lexington, Ridgeview, Blue Ridge, and Roanoke-Benson. LeRoy offense and defense didn’t give Blue Ridge much to capitalize on during their game Nov. 17, with the Panthers registering a 55-12 victory.

While the girls’ team is trying to stay ahead of its opponents, Head Coach Mark Edmundson’s LeRoy boys’ basketball team finds themselves looking to finish strong against opponents but thus far has only been able to chalk up a 7-5 record including a 1-3 HOIC mark.

Ridgeview: Head Coach Rodney Kellar’s Ridgeview boys’ basketball team have had two of their three wins on the season putting up big numbers on the scoreboard. Although they dropped their season opener Nov. 21 to Flanagan-Cornell, they won their first game Nov. 22 in a 47-39 win over Woodland and a 57-33 pounding over Peru St. Bede the next night. But after that, the Mustangs found themselves in the midst of a four-game losing streak which included an overtime loss to Flanagan, and two more losses, one each to HOIC foes LeRoy and EPG. The Mustangs find themselves in the midst of a two-game skid hoping to change course against non-conference opponent Dwight.

While the Mustangs’ boys’ team is continuing to frustrate opponents, Ridgeview’s girls’ basketball team, under Head Coach Ashley VanEtten, are themselves, frustrated about how their record has turned out thus far. The Lady Mustangs were 2-6 in November starting the season with a five-game losing streak before earning their first victory Nov. 21 against Iroquois West, in a non-conference away game. A loss to Cissna Park, followed by a 42-19 win over Blue Ridge High School, followed by a loss to LeRoy and a win over Flanagan/Woodland has been a pattern VanEtten’s team find themselves in with a 4-10 overall record including a 1-4 mark against HOIC foes.

Tri-Valley: Vikings Head Coach Todd Kagel is trying to get his team out from under their current 4-6 mark while looking toward improving a 2-2 HOIC mark in the process. They have been scrapping to get on the positive side this season including dropping a 52-45 loss to Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley Dec. 6. Their last game before Christmas resulted in a seven-point loss, 61-54, Dec. 17 to Clinton.

EPG Head Girls Basketball Coach Brent Ward saw his team open the season Nov. 14 with a loss to Tolono Unity and then see the team struggle to win more than two games at a time before sustaining another loss. A 55-53 win Dec. 12 managed to get the team restarted toward victories after losing to Maroa-Forsyth two days earlier. Such results have been part of the Lady Titans’ 6-5 season thus far which has included going 3-3 against HOIC opponents

NORMAL – History tells us the Minutemen of Colonial times used strategy to forge the eastern part of America. Lexington High School uses the Minutemen as their mascot to put fear into opponents. However, history also has a way of reminding fans of certain sports teams how long it has been since the team has achieved getting close to getting to State. For Lexington High School, it has been 23 years.

But on Monday night, Lexington High’s boys’ basketball team, in trying to prevent this season from being added to the history books, encountered a faster opponent at their Class 1A Super-Sectional contest at Redbird Arena. Minutemen faithful saw their team train throughout the contest and then watch Yorkville Christian advance to State Semifinals this weekend after beating Lexington, 71-33.

Yorkville (23-13) jumped out to a fast lead following the game’s tipoff starting with a deuce followed by an unanswered trey from Jaden Schutt, followed by an unanswered deuce from K. J. Vasser, putting the Mustangs up 7-0 at the 5:33 mark in the quarter. Lexington Head Coach Doug Yoder to call time to get his troops refocused from the lopsided start.

Although Lexington (24-13) did manage to get baskets from Logan Friedmansky, Alex Thomas, and Ben Peacock in the remainder of the quarter, a trey each from Vasser, Schutt, and Burrows helped close out the first quarter with an 18-6 advantage.

The Mustangs increased their advantage in the second quarter on the strength of treys by six different players while Lexington managed baskets from Kaden Tolan, Ben Peacock, and Carter Coffman, aided by two Alex Thomas free throws. The Mustangs continued galloping ahead into the half on a 47-18 lead.

A Thomas trey was the lone highlight for Minutemen fans and came right at the start of the third quarter. Vasser and Brayden Long added three more treys, pushing Yorkville ahead, 69-25, to start the fourth quarter.

Ben Crouch achieved a trey at 5:49 in the fourth quarter followed by Reimer going 1-for-2 from the free throw line, reducing Yorkville Christian’s lead to 70-29. Sean Rourke scored the Minutemen’s last baskets of the season at the 2:38 and 2:15 mark in the last quarter, receiving loud cheering from Minutemen faithful.

No Minutemen players achieved double-figures in the contest. Two players who came closest to doing so were Coffman with 8 points followed by Thomas’ 7. Four Yorkville players achieved double-figures led by 22 from Schutt.

“I’m so proud of our guys and they bought into me,” Yoder said afterward, referring to the overall gameplan he envisioned his team carrying out this season. If you had said Lexington would make the Elite 8, I don’t think there would be a lot of people who would have said that. So, I’m proud of these guys.”

“You’ve got, probably, four All-Staters on that team,” Yoder said of the caliber of team his squad faced Monday. “It was kind of hard but we have been playing man-to-man, and obviously, it didn’t work for us.”

Yoder said getting this far in what was his second season patrolling the Minutemen bench showed him his players “are feisty, their scrappy, they just don’t like to lose.”

“During the opening tipoff, and warmups, and everyone was out here cheering, it was one of the best things to ever happen to my life,” said Ben Peacock. “The community has just supported us so much and even being here and losing by a lot of points, they cheered us on and loved every second of having us out there on that court. We’ve done something that Lexington hasn’t done for a long, long time.”

Both Peacock and his coach said the fanbase’s momentum was maintained even as the boys seamlessly went from the fall sport to the winter one.

“Obviously, we had a great season,” Thomas, a junior, said, adding he appreciated being able to get to this level thanks to the seniors on the team. He also expressed the hope the team will be able to get back to State competition again next year to close out the basketball season and get further than the Minutemen did this time.

“We were able to get a handful of tapes on Lexington and knew they had some really good shooters,” said Yorkville Christian head coach Aaron Sovern. “We knew that Peacock was a nice player when he was with the ball, and that he was really shifty, so we tried to focus a lot of attention there.

“We needed to take them out of what they do on the floor,” Sovern added. “I thought our guys did a really nice job of keeping Lexington from running with the ball. I thought we could have knocked down a few more shots in the first quarter but we started knocking some down in the second quarter, so I was pleased with our effort overall.”

Steeleville Beats Macon Meridian To Reach Other Class 1A Semi-Final: Yorkville’s opponent for the IHSA Class 1A semifinal Lexington was vying for will be another top seed team from Steeleville High School. Steeleville beat second seeded Macon Meridian Monday, to advance to Thursday’s other semifinal, 68-47. Steeleville is south of St. Louis in Randolph County.

The other semifinal to see who advances to the championship will be between a pair of number one seeds as Adams County-based Liberty will take on Scales Mound. That game is slated for Thursday at 11:45a.m. Liberty beat another number one seed, Augusta Southeastern, 49-42. Scales Mound, a top seed, beat 4th seed Chicago Marshall, 55-41.

Third Seed Bloomington Central Catholic Loses To Top Seed Monticello: Another local team was eliminated Monday as, in Class 2A, 3rd seeded Bloomington Central Catholic lost their Super-Sectional matchup Monday to top seed Monticello, 62-44.

WATSEKA, Ill. – Lexington High School’s 5th seeded Minutemen boys’ basketball team appeared to arrive fully-loaded Friday night against 3rd seeded Decatur St. Teresa, downing the Bulldogs, 43-36, to win the first of two games of the IHSA Class 1A Boys’ Sectional at Watseka High School. As a result, the victory would pit the Minutemen against top seed Yorkville Christian in an IHSA Super-Sectional game at Redbird Arena Monday night. Yorkville Christian advanced to play the Minutemen after eliminating 3rd seed Granville-Putnam County, 81-47.

Lexington (24-12) gained control of the contest early, outpacing the Bulldogs, 12-2, at the end of the first quarter. Minutemen senior guard Ben Peacock opened the second quarter with a trey, then, after Lexington got a rebound, added another trey to give Lexington an 18-2 lead early on. St. Teresa junior Billy Guyse added a deuce, reducing Lexington’s lead to 18-4. Another Peacock basket gave Lexington a 20-4 advantage, and was quickly followed by Shadow Sumner’s basket with 4:52 left in the quarter shortened Lexington’s lead to 20-6

A trey and unanswered deuce by Sumner cut Lexington’s lead in half, 22-11. A foul by Bulldog junior Colton Bourne sent Lexington senior forward Carter Coffman to the free throw line with 1:06 left in the half where he went 1-for-2, giving Lexington a 23-11 lead. The game went into halftime with that lead reduced to 23-13 thanks to a Bourne jump shot.

A third quarter opening basket by junior forward Kaden Farrell put Lexington up, 25-13, and was quickly followed by a jumper for the Bulldogs from Sumner. A defensive move gave Decatur St. Teresa (19-9) the ball back and Sumner added a trey with 6:56 left in the quarter, cutting the Minutemen lead to 25-18. The two sides exchanged deuces allowing Decatur St. Teresa to reduce Lexington’s lead to seven, 27-20, prompting Minutemen head coach Doug Yoder to call timeout with 3:24 left in the quarter.

Coming out of the timeout, senior Tre’ Spence pushed Decatur St. Teresa closer, 27-22, and then committed a foul on Lexington’s senior forward Kaden Tolan, but Tolan both of his free throws. But a trey from Coffman put three points on the board, putting Lexington up, 30-22, with 1:37 left in the quarter. Guyse added another basket, followed by another Minutemen basket by Lexington junior guard Alec Thomas, giving Lexington a 32-24 lead with 57 seconds left in the quarter. That advantage prompted Bulldogs head coach Mike Noonan to call time. Coming out of the break, Decatur St. Teresa closed within five, 32-27, courtesy of a trey from Sumner to close out the quarter.

Just as the Minutemen had done to open the second quarter, the Bulldogs opened the fourth quarter on a 5-0 spree courtesy of a trey by Guyse followed immediately by a deuce from Spence, tying the game at 32-all with 6:22 left. Coming out of the break, a fouled guard Logan Friedmansky sank two free throws for Lexington, putting the Minutemen up, 34-32. A Sumner layup for the Bulldogs tied the game at 34-all, and was followed by a 5-0 stretch for Lexington including a layup and an unanswered trey from Peacock giving the Minutemen a 39-34 lead, and prompting Decatur St. Teresa to call time with 3:39 left in the contest.

A foul committed by Friedmansky sent Guyse to the free throw line with 3:17 left, where he hit both shots, cutting Lexington’s lead to three, 39-36. But a foul by Bulldogs’ Sumner sent Thomas to the free throw line for Lexington where he went 1-for-2, giving the Minutemen a 40-36 edge with 1:24 left. The advantage prompted Lexington to call time at that point, and after a missed free throw by Peacock, the Minutemen called time again, with 37.5 seconds left.

Coming out of that timeout, Thomas and Friedmansky each were fouled, with Thomas going 2-for-2, and Friedmansky went a combined 3-for-4 resulting in what would be the eventual final score. Guyse tried for a last shot but missed, the contest closed out with Thomas being fouled by Bulldogs junior Matt Brummer, but Thomas missed both free throw attempts.

For Peacock, getting to the Elite 8 since 1999 “is awesome. We knew they like to shoot the ball and we ran them off the three-point line. We played using man-to-man against them. It won’t matter who the opponent is because we will come out and play a great game.”

Peacock led the Minutemen’s charge with 17 points, followed by Thomas’ 11. Guyse was the lone double-digit scorer for Decatur St. Teresa pocketing 18.

“This has been an unbelievable year for Lexington,” Yoder said afterward, considering the football team went to State Playoffs and practically, as soon as that ended, went right into basketball practice.”

“I thought our kids played well, I thought they played really hard,” Bulldogs head coach Mike Noonan said. “I couldn’t be more proud of them. Guyse fought really hard tonight. He’s a junior, but he became a senior tonight.” Noonan said the Bulldogs leading scorer and rebounder, a senior, Cayden Wilkins, was out for this game.

“I knew Peacock could make hard shots, but some of the shots he made here were tough,” Noonan said, giving credit to the 5 foot-9 guard. “Peacock gave us the most trouble, but so did Thomas.” Noonan added, “We didn’t hit some of the shots we normally make through the course of the year, but that’s basketball.”

NORMAL – Anticipation is filling the air for high school basketball fans as Illinois High School Association State Girls and Boys Basketball Tournaments draw near. IHSA has altered the format for the tournaments so that all four classes of each gender play over a 2 ½ day period, beginning Thursday and concluding Saturday with championship games. The Girls’ Tournament will be at Redbird Arena from March 3-5. The Boys’ Tournament will be at State Farm Center in Champaign from March 10-12.

The 3rd place game for the Girls’ Tournament will be Thursday, March 3 at 7p.m. at Redbird Arena. The 3rd place game for the Boys’ Tournament will be Thursday, March 10 at 7p.m. at State Farm Center. As a result, IHSA has moved its 3-Point Showdown event, usually held in the late afternoon on Thursday of the event to early Saturday morning so that all four classes for both Girls and Boys can take place in the midst of the event.

The IHSA Girls’ 3-Point Shootout competition will be on Saturday, March 5 at Redbird Arena from 8a.m.-11a.m. The IHSA Boys’ 3-Point Shootout competition will be on Saturday, March 12 at State Farm Center from 8a.m.-11a.m.

Top Seed Serena Advances After Beating 4th seed Ridgeview, 53-48 In Super-Sectional: The season came to an end for Head Coach Scott Ghere’s Mustangs during their Class 1A Super-Sectional in Serena Monday as they found themselves outpaced by top seed Huskers team, 46-34. As a result, 4th seed Ridgeview closes out the season at 25-9. The Mustangs found themselves trailing Serena through three quarters, 35-23, before finding opportunities to score in the fourth quarter in their attempt to try to overtake the Huskers. The Mustangs got to the Super-Sectional contest having outpaced 6th seed Champaign Thomas More, 45-29. Top seed Serena had an equally challenging time against 2nd seed Newark coming out on top, 45-29.

Lexington High Boys’ Team Reach Sectional Semi-Finals: By Tuesday night, Head Coach Doug Yoder’s Lexington Minutemen basketball team will have marched his team’s 22-12 record, seeded fifth in IHSA Class 1A into a Sectional Semifinal against 4th seed Decatur Lutheran, to be played at Watseka. The Minutemen began their quest for a title by beating 12th seed Roanoke-Benson, 68-56, in their opening round game. That had them pushing past 4th seed Bloomington Cornerstone Christian in a 53-48 upset to allow them to advance to Regional Finals where they beat 6th seed Heyworth, 66-57, to find themselves a game away from getting to a Sectional Championship. Should they achieve getting to that game, they would face the winner of a showdown between 2nd seed Milford and 3rd seed Decatur St. Teresa. Should the Minutemen make it to the Sectional Championship, the Minutemen would travel back to Watseka for a 7p.m. game Thursday.

University High Girls, El Paso Gridley Girls Made Early Exits: Two other teams – one local, one from the county – made quick exits while trying to get to State this year. Fifth seed University High earned a Sectional round win over 6th seed Canton, 39-36, before falling short to top seed Quincy Notre Dame in their Super-Sectional matchup, 30-28. El Paso Gridley, seeded 7th, got as far as Super Sectionals this year, being beaten by First seed Minonk Fieldcrest, 46-37. The Titans defeated 8th seed Coal City, 46-43, in the opening round to get to the Super-Sectional. Downs Tri-Valley Girls, seeded 12th, made a fast exit, losing to 7th seed Warrensburg-Latham, 63-31.

NCHS, Central Catholic, Lexington Boys Advance: Boys teams from local and county schools took another step toward getting to IHSA State Tournament in Champaign Tuesday with victories. The list of winners starts with Class 4A top seed Normal Community High School Boys making it to IHSA’s Sweet 16 with a 61-44 win over 9th seed Moline, 61-44 to win the Collinsville Sectional semifinal game at Pekin High School Tuesday. The win increased NCHS’ record to 33-1 going into their Sectional final matchup against 3rd seed Quincy Senior High School to be played Friday night at Pekin Community High School. The victory was also NCHS’ 26th straight victory on the season.

Bloomington Central Catholic, 19-15 and seeded 3rd in Class 2A, earned a trip to the Sweet 16 with a 58-46 semifinal win against Auburn, played at Stanford Olympia High School. The Saints will meet the winner of the other Sectional semi-final between 3rd seed Quincy Notre Dame and 4th seed Maroa-Forsythe, scheduled for Wednesday night, with the Sectional championship is scheduled for Friday in Stanford at 7p.m.

Lexington (23-12) outpaced Decatur Lutheran, 69-61 to win at the Watseka Semi-Final Tuesday night. As a result, the Minutemen will face the winner of the other semifinal there between Decatur St. Teresa and Milford, scheduled for Wednesday night. The winners of the two semis would square off Friday at 7p.m. in Watseka.

It’s Heart Of Illinois Conference/McLean County Tournament time again. The 108th annual event starts Saturday at El Paso Gridley High School with opening round action and runs through to a girls’ championship game and a boys’ championship game, both at Shirk Center on Illinois Wesleyan University’s campus on Saturday, Jan. 26. The tourney will take its customary break on Wednesday, Jan. 23.

Former local broadcaster L. A. Decker has served as public address announcer for the entire tourney at Shirk for a number of years now and has taken the pulse of the event for some time, predicting which teams will get furthest. The one thing Decker does not do, however, is predict who will win championship games. He said upholding that personal policy helps him maintain objectivity. He does, however, almost sound like a pro scout at times in his analysis which helps novice fans and students of the game know what is going on with local teams.

Lexington Girls Seeded Third: Decker points to the girls’ teams seeded first and second in the tournament as being “head and shoulders above” the remaining teams in the field. Those would be top seed Eureka (19-2 overall and 10-0 HOIC) and second seed Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley (17-4 overall and 8-1 HOIC). But coming right behind them are the Lexington Lady Minutemen (13-2 overall and 7-1 HOIC), earning the third seed. The key to Eureka is, according to Decker, “They don’t rebuild when they have new players. They retool.”

“Lexington could surprise some people,” Decker said, adding they would not be the only team to do so, saying the same about fourth seeded Ridgeview. Lexington has only lost a conference game and a non-conference game so far. “The Minutemen girls are definitely the surprise team from what I have seen in the records,” Decker said. The Ridgeview Mustangs were 15-4 overall and 7-1 Conference at this writing.

The Lady Minutemen recently lost to Dwight, a loss which halted a 9-game winning streak for head coach Bill Elias’ crew.

“Tremont beat LeRoy Jan. 8,” Decker reminded. “That vaulted the Turks ahead of LeRoy in the standings.

Decker said he sees Elias’ team in the final four of the tournament, along with the other top three seeds, but cautions either Deer Creek-Mackinaw or El Paso Gridley could sneak in to disrupt the scenario. With all the first round games at EPG Saturday, eighth seed Flanagan-Cornell will face ninth seed Heyworth to open the tournament on Saturday at 11:30a.m. Fourth seed Ridgeview hosts 13th seed Fisher at 1p.m. Fifth seed Dee-Mack hosts 12th seed Tri-Valley at 2:30p.m. Seventh seed EPG hosts 10th seed LeRoy at 4p.m. Sixth seed Fieldcrest takes on 11th seed Tremont to close out the day at 5:30p.m.

Decker said he “sees the chalk holding up” meaning the top four seeds survive their challenges, with Eureka facing GCMS for the title.

LeRoy Boys Seeded Fifth: GCMS is the top seed in the Boys’ Tournament bracket, with the Falcons owning a 15-2 record as of Sunday, including a perfect 7-0 conference mark. Deer Creek-Mackinaw is seeded second at 15-3 and 4-0 conference, and Tremont is seeded third. The Turks have a 15-4 overall record which includes being 4-2 in conference play. LeRoy, the fifth seed, has the highest seed in the Boys’ bracket of county schools, just below fourth seed Fieldcrest. While that won’t be seen as encouraging to some readers of this column, Decker said LeRoy (9-4 overall and 6-1 Conference as of this writing) should not be overlooked or counted out once play begins.

Head coach Rodney Kellar’s Ridgeview Mustangs are 10-8 overall and 3-4 in conference, and seeded ninth in the tournament. They are slated to take on eight seed Downs Tri-Valley to start the day Saturday at 11:30a.m. Lexington boys, seeded 13th, will open the tournament against fourth seed Fieldcrest Saturday at 1p.m. LeRoy’s fifth seed puts them against 12th seed Fisher in a 2:30p.m. matchup. Seventh seed Eureka meets 10th seed Flanagan-Cornell in a 4p.m. contest. Sixth seed EPG finishes the day at 5:30p.m. against 11th seed Heyworth.

Although they are the last single-digit seed, Decker said, he doesn’t know if that makes the Mustangs a longshot or the wild card in the race. He added Tremont is likely the team to watch because the Turks “have spoiled a few parties for teams” when on the court this year.

Lexington’s boys’ team has struggled in the early season, Decker said. The Minutemen as of Sunday were 7-11 overall and winless in six tries in conference play. Last season, the Minutemen “held their own,” as Decker explained it, against HOIC opponents but have yet to demonstrate that skill this season. Decker predicts GCMS and Tremont will square off for the championship.

Regardless of who wins, there will be bragging rights attained for the winners, disappointment and possibly a few tears shed by the defeated, but the games and their outcomes will at least give us a week where we can try to take our minds off of any winter blahs we may be encountering and give us time to enjoy the competition.