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Monday, Jan. 20

High school basketball

[JAN. 20, 2003] 

Boys

At Stanford

Washington     18   34   43     60

Olympia          13   21   25     42

Olympia:  Elliott 2-2-7, Olson 5-0-13, Criswell 1-0-2, Thornton 2-0-6, Williams 1-0-3, Kieser 2-0-4, Schmidgall 2-2-7.  Totals 15-4-42.  Three-pointers:  Olson 3, Thornton 2, Elliott 1, Williams 1, Schmidgall 1.

Junior varsity:  Washington def. Olympia 64-61.

Others

Lincoln def. Pekin 54-21

Girls

Lincoln def. Springfield SHG 47-44

High school wrestling

[JAN. 20, 2003] 

Quincy Invitational

At Quincy

16. Lincoln 90

103 lbs:  Harper (Althoff) technical fall over Geraldo Valdes (Lincoln), 18-3.

119:  Ben Hollowell (Rock Falls) dec. Josh Rogers (Lincoln), 16-5.

LCC men's basketball vs. Missouri Baptist

[JAN. 20, 2003]  Lincoln Christian College, playing in St. Louis for the second time this week, lost to Missouri Baptist 106-69. The Preachers kept a close first half and headed to the locker room down 11, 47-36.

[Aaron Johnson]

'Birds fall to Wichita State 78-57

[JAN. 20, 2003]  NORMAL -- Carlesa Dixon got 14 of her game-high 18 points in the first half as league-leading Wichita State downed Illinois State 78-57 in a Missouri Valley Conference basketball game Saturday night at Redbird Arena.

Poor shooting haunted the Redbirds, 3-11, 1-4 in the Valley, as Illinois State shot just 33.9 percent to WSU's 47.4 percent. The Shockers had four players in double figures as Angela Buckner and Raeven King had 15 and Tisharria Huggins added 16 for the Shockers, 11-4, 5-1 in the Valley. Erin Keeney led the Redbirds with 11 points. Sharon Blade had eight rebounds and Katie Donovan added seven as ISU won the battle of the boards, 43 to the Shockers' 37.

Despite the loss, Redbird coach Jenny Yopp saw some positive aspects in the game.

"I think Wichita State is the team to beat in the Valley," said Yopp. "With only 19 turnovers against their press and the fact that we out-rebounded a very athletic team, both were good things from us. But we didn't finish a lot of the opportunities that we had. Lately we've had the fight, and we've had the ‘fight back.' However, tonight I don't think we had the ‘fight back.'"

Wichita State coach Darryl Smith was pleased with his team's effort against the Redbirds.

"We didn't play that good or that hard, but we played with confidence and we played together," said Smith. "I think over the summer we grew up. It's fun to watch us practice and it's fun to watch us play."

[to top of second column in this article]

Dixon hit her first four shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, to get the Shockers out to a 27-12 lead in the first 13 minutes. The Redbirds made just five of their first 22 shots. The ‘Birds stormed back by holding WSU to just a pair of Dixon baskets in the final seven minutes of the half. ISU's 11 points in that span included a 3-pointer by Sara Stevenson, baskets by Michelle Harakas and Sharon Blade, and a pair of free throws by Desiree Gutierrez, which cut the Shockers' lead to 31-23 at intermission.

Huggins' 3-pointer to start the second half got the Shockers a double-digit lead, and Angela Buckner's two baskets and two free throws stretched it to 42-30 in the first four minutes. ISU came as close as eight at 44-36 after that on another Stevenson trey, but the Shockers methodically pulled away from then on.

The Redbirds take to the road this week, meeting Southern Illinois on Thursday and Evansville on Saturday.

[Thomas Lamonica, Illinois State University]

Wichita State edges Illinois State 69-66

[JAN. 20, 2003]  NORMAL -- Trey Guidry scored all of his team-high 15 points in the second half, but his final shot rimmed out with 3.4 seconds left on the clock, shattering Illinois State's hopes to end its seven-game losing streak, as Wichita State beat the Redbirds 69-66 in Missouri Valley Conference action Saturday.

The Redbirds, 1-13, 0-6 in the Valley, had five players in double figures, led by Guidry's 15. Vince Greene added 14, Baboucarr Bojang had 12, Gregg Alexander scored 11, and Marcus Arnold had 10.

Wichita State, 9-5, 4-1 in the Valley, got 20 points from Jamar Howard. Rob Kampman hit all five of his first-half shots, including three 3-pointers, on the way to a 17-point performance for WSU, which shot 51 percent from the field versus Illinois State's 42 percent. The Birds had a 34-30 advantage on the boards, led by Bojang's nine.

WSU had a 30-28 halftime lead thanks to Kampman's 13 points.

A pair of Burns 3-pointers helped WSU open a 41-37 lead in the first five minutes of the second half, but a Bojang jumper, Guidry's first basket of the game -- a 3-pointer -- and Greene's steal and layup put the Birds on top 44-41 with 13:07 left. Miller, Randy Burns and Howard scored in succession to put the Shockers back on top by three, 47-44, at the 12:01 mark.

[to top of second column in this article]

With Guidry hitting a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer and Gregg Alexander hitting two free throws and a long 2-pointer, ISU scored the next nine points to take a 53-47 lead into the final eight minutes. Another Kampman shot at the six-minute mark put the Shockers within one at 55. Howard hit a 3-pointer on WSU's next drive to improve the Shockers' score to 58. Greene answered with a 3-point shot of his own to put the Redbirds ahead again, 59-58. Guidry brought the crowd of 5,970 to its feet once again with another 3-point bucket at the 1:45 mark to put the 'Birds at 64-62.

Aaron Hogg answered with a 3 for WSU -- his only basket in eight tries in the game. Guidry's driving shot with 1:18 left put the Birds back on top, 66-65, but Miller scored off a set play to put the Shockers ahead to stay.

The Redbirds play Monday at No. 13 Creighton. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. in Omaha, Neb. (See pre-game notes.)

[Erica Fricke, assistant director of media relations, Illinois State University]

Men's basketball pre-game notes

Illinois State vs. Creighton

[JAN. 20, 2003]   The Illinois State Redbirds play the No. 13 Creighton Bluejays Monday evening in Omaha, Neb..

Click here to view background information (in Adobe Acrobat).

[Click here to download the Adobe Acrobat reader.]

[Provided by Todd Kober,
 director of media relations,
Illinois State University]

Illini fall short again

By the LDN staff

[JAN. 20, 2003]  Illinois is finding out that life on the road is not as glamorous as it may sound. In Bloomington, Ind., on Saturday, the Illini absorbed another loss and saw their record dip to 2-2.

We LDNers, who pretty much predicted we'd be 2-2 at this point, realize that we're not as happy with this record as we hoped we would be.

This particular game seemed to be the exact opposite of what Illinois faced last year on the foreign soil. Instead of bombing in the 3-pointers, this time the Hoosiers sent the ball inside. Jeff Newton and George Leach did all the rest of the damage from there. Newton had a career-high 28 points, eight rebounds, three steals and five blocks and may have drawn some pay for leading the pep band as well! Leach added only eight points but pulled down 11 big boards.

The Illini committed only eight turnovers but were out-rebounded 47-38. They were also outscored 24-10 at the line in an area that is drawing much concern. Both teams combined for only 39 percent shooting from the field.

Dee Brown led the Illini with 18 points and five assists. Lincoln's Brian Cook added 15 points and seven rebounds.

The Illini hope to get back into the race this week with a home contest versus Purdue on Wednesday.

[LDN staff]

[Photos by Tom Seggelke]

Articles from the past week

By Jeff Mayfield

[JAN. 20, 2003]  If you thought we were kiddin' the last couple of weeks when it comes to how good the Lincoln Railers are playing, then you obviously didn't see the Lincoln-Pekin game on Saturday. Lincoln was up 30-4 at half and 46-9 after three quarters. Now that's dominance! Everyone seems to be playing well for Lincoln right now… you just hope that they don't peak too early. That's usually not a problem for Alexander-coached teams. This week proves to be another kind of test entirely, as Lincoln has a five- or six-game week!

Well, it's going to be the Oakland Raiders against that wild man, Jon Gruden's, Tampa Bay Buccaneers! But, who will win? Since Tampa went into a hostile environment and did the unthinkable, they must have the edge in San Diego. The Raiders are old and could really have used the old format of two weeks off before the Big game. Both games seemed to be well-officiated.

Local and area colleges hoped to be better than their current records at this point, but there's still time to ready for the postseason.

Making my annual trip to watch our local junior high teams play... I saw Carroll Catholic's teams earlier, and they really performed well. LJHS had been up and down a little, but we saw both of their teams this week in two pretty impressive wins.

Is it just me or are any other Cardinal fans worried about how much Houston and Chicago have improved over the winter?

The Birds are pinning their hopes on everyone coming back healthy. When you've been in the playoffs so many times, do you really worry if they miss a year? That whole concept really concerns us, the way sports are run as a business rather than trying to win championships every year!

[to top of second column in this article]

Equal opportunity? There's been a lot of talk about that when it comes to hirings in the world of sports. We don't know about you, but I'd hire the person who gives us the best chance to win… period! All the hype, discussions, crossfires, etc. are not going to change the bottom line for pro franchises and many college programs… winning!

…Right here tonight on the LDN's live link, CITV Channel 5 and FIX 96.3 FM at 6 p.m.! Greg Taylor joins us back in the studio after a two-week hiatus. We also hope to be joined by the Lincoln Elks head golf professional, Mr. Adam Walsh. So, all of you golfers, duffers and hackers, get your off-season golf questions ready and give us a call tonight at 735-3306. We hope to have some other surprises for you as well!

Have a great week, everybody!

[Jeff Mayfield]

• Last week: "Cook's scoring explosion dooms Badgers"
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