Toyota of Danville MVP Tanner Jacob goes up for a shot during the Spartans' title game against Oakwood. The senior scored 16 points in SJO's first conference win over Central Catholic Saturday afternoon on the road.
Photo: PhotoNews Media/Clark Brooks
BLOOMINGTON - Coming off a huge overtime win over Normal West on Tuesday, the St. Joseph-Ogden basketball team was back in Blo-No to face Illini Prairie rival Central Catholic on Saturday. Like their earlier visit to the other downstate twin city, the Spartans returned home victorious after defeating the Saints 63-54.
Despite a 41% shooting effort against Central Catholic's 95%, SJO proved the adage 'less is better' doesn't necessarily win basketball games.
Tanner Jacob led the Spartans with 16 points. Junior Tanner Siems also finished in double figures with 13 points. Guards Coy Taylor and
Logan Smith rounded out the top four scorers with eight points each.
The foursome fired 43 of St. Joseph-Ogden's 54 shots at the rim, draining 18 of the 22 that resulted in points.
Senior
Luke Landrus dominated the boards with nine rebounds and led the Spartans with three steals. Smith, also a senior, was credited with five rebounds and seven assists.
SJO heads back to Bloomington-Normal as the #3-seed in the Small School Division
State Farm Classic. Jacob and the Spartans appear to be firing on all cylinders and looking like a good bet for a repeat of last year's championship run. With four contests to play before their tournament opener against Ead Dubuque two days after Christmas, the currently undefeated Spartans have a brutal four-game schedule ahead of them.
On Tuesday, the team goes head-to-head with Danville over in the 'Ville, who hopes to avenge last year's 66-53 loss behind Ty Pence's 35-point show-stopper. The Vikings have taken losses this season to Centennial, Peoria, Lincoln, and Belleville West. Their three wins have been over smaller size schools, including Mahomet-Seymour, Rantoul, and Ogden International.
The Main Gym should be packed to the rafters on Friday when St. Joseph-Ogden hosts Normal University. Like the Spartans, the Pioneers have already beat Central Catholic and Normal West and will have vengeance on their minds as well after last year's loss to SJO at the State Farm Classic.
With four days to recover, Bismarck-Henning-Rossville-Alvin be in the house. Then, Friday, the St. Joseph-Ogden basketball team is back on a bus and heading to the den of the Beecher Bobcats, who are 8-0, 4-0 in the River Valley Conference.
Want to see more sports stories like this?
If you enjoy reading stories about our area high school sports programs, the Sentinel can really use
your help.
We need the help of passionate sports fans like yourself to help us cover more games, feature more athletes, and give recognition to the hard-working athletes who deserve it. There are several ways you can help.
You can help us by sharing our stories and photos on social media for your family and friends to enjoy. Having more readers helps us convince businesses to advertise with us. The more advertisers we have, the greater our local coverage.
And there are even more ways you can help.
We'll tell you about those here.
With no paywall on our site, every contribution helps our readers enjoy our sports and news coverage. Contribute today. It only takes a minute to help make memories in our community last forever.
