The Sentinel: Outlasting a talented Tri-Valley squad, SJO basketball advances to State Farm tournament quarterfinals

Outlasting a talented Tri-Valley squad, SJO basketball advances to State Farm tournament quarterfinals

BLOOMINGTON - The St. Joseph-Ogden boys basketball team trailed on the scoreboard for 19 minutes of their quarterfinal game against Tri-Valley (10-1) at the State Farm Holiday Classic. That was until Spartan Coy Taylor sank a field goal with 4:57 left in the game to give his team the one-point go-ahead, 41-40. Persistent and tenacious, SJO (5-3) held the late game lead to win by two 44-42 at Illinois Wesleyan's Shirk Center on Friday.

Down by four, seven minutes away from being bumped into the consolation bracket, Ryker Lockhart drilled a three-pointer to close the gap by one before Taylor's bucket.

After a brief six-point advantage, SJO led by two at the end of the first quarter, 14-12. Vikings' Tommy Kinsella tied the game up a little over a minute into the second quarter, forcing SJO to battle through the next two and a quarter periods in catch-up mode.

Senior Tanner Siems led the team offensively, scoring 10 points. Will Haley added nine points of his own, and Parker Fitch finished with 8 points in SJO's scoring effort.

Tri-Valley Kinsella led all scorers with 15 points, and teammate Ayden Jensen, who went 6-for-6 from the free throw line, chipped in 12 more.

St. Joseph-Ogden's Coy Taylor tries to dribble around El Paso-Gridley's Chancesaye Maxon during last December's small school title game at the Shirk Center. Up by two and with less than two seconds on the game clock, St. Joseph-Ogden lost the back-and-forth game 49-48, thanks to a 20-footer launched by Maxon at the buzzer.

Photo: Sentinel/Clark Brooks

One game away from making a third-consecutive appearance in the tournament's championship contest, St. Joseph-Ogden will face a familiar foe at 4:30 PM on Saturday at Normal West High School. The Spartans will be looking for revenge on El Paso-Gridley, last year's small school champs, after suffering a heart-breaking loss in a buzzer-beater at the Shirk Center last December.

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